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UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

II       III 

DIVISION  OF  ECONOMICS  AND  HISTORY 


RELIMINARY  ECONOMIC  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 


THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGO- 
SLAVIA, RUMANIA  AND  NORTH  ITALY 
DURING  AND  AFTER  THE  WORLD  WAR 


3531-6 


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Publications  of  the 

Carnegie  Endowment  for  International  Peace 

Division  of  Economics  and  History 

John  Bates  Clark,  Director 


PRELIMINARY  ECONOMIC  STUDIES  OF  THE  WAR 

No.  21 


THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT 

IN  JUGOSLAVIA.  RUMANIA 

AND  NORTH  ITALY 

BY 

DIARMID  COFFEY 

Librarian,  The  Cooperative  Reference  Library,  Dublin 


THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT 

IN  JUGOSLAVIA,  RUMANIA 

AND  NORTH  ITALY 

During  and  After  the  World  War 


BY 

DIARMID  COFFEY 

Librarian,  The  Cooperative  Reference  Library,  Dublin 


NEW  YORK 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

Amebican  Branch:  35  West  32nd  Street 
LONDON,  TORONTO,  MELBOURNE  AND  BOMBAY 

1922 


COrVRIGHT   193a 
BY  THE 
CARltEOIB  ENDOWMENT  FOR  INTERNATIONAL  PEACI 


CnaOM  BBOS..  pkimtbm,  washimoton 


2D-^^'>  ^  UrvIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

/^  Z'  SANTA  BARBARA  COLLBGB  LIBRARY 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

The  following  studies  of  the  cooperative  movement  in  Serbia 
and  Rumania  during  and  after  the  War  are  the  outcome  of  an  in- 
vestigation undertaken  by  me  at  the  instigation  in  the  first 
instance  and  with  the  financial  support  of  the  Horace  Plunkett 
Foundation  Trust  and  the  English  Labour  Research  Depart- 
ment. The  preparation  of  a  report  for  the  Carnegie  Endow- 
ment for  International  Peace  enabled  me  to  extend  the  time  and 
scope  of  my  investigation.  I  had  originally  intended  to  make  a 
full  inquiry  into  Italian  cooperation,  but  I  found  that  were  I  to 
attempt  this  I  should  have  to  devote  six  months  or  a  year  to 
Italy  alone.  The  extraordinary  number  of  cooperative  organi- 
zations in  Italy  and  the  wide  range  of  their  activities  are  such  that 
no  one  could  attempt  to  speak  with  authority  who  had  not  spent 
a  very  long  time  in  the  country  and  who  did  not  speak  Italian 
almost  as  his  native  language.  I  therefore  attempted  only  a 
cursory  view  of  Italian  cooperation  and  have  appended  a  few 
brief  and  inadequate  notes  of  what  I  saw  in  Italy. 

My  investigations  in  Jugoslavia  and  Rumania  were  far  more 
fruitful,  and  I  think  I  may  claim  to  give  a  fairly  comprehensive 
view  of  cooperative  conditions  in  these  countries.  I  have  not 
seen  any  accounts  of  them  which  give  as  general  a  description  as  I 
have  attempted,  and  therefore  I  hope  that  the  reader,  will  find 
matter  which  will  interest  him. 

I  had  originally  intended  to  return  to  Ireland  through  Hun- 
gary, Austria  and  Czechoslovakia,  but  the  fates  decided  against 
this.  My  companion  on  the  journey  was  an  Irish  agriculturist, 
Mr.  A.  Vere  O'Brien,  whose  practical  knowledge  of  farming  was 
of  great  assistance  to  me.  Unfortunately,  he  became  seriously 
ill,  which  necessitated  the  curtailment  of  my  plans.  After  a 
month  in  a  hospital  at  Brasov  (Cronstadt)  he  became  well 
enough  to  travel  again.  But  traveling  in  Eastern  Europe  was  very 
difficult.     The  trains  were  so  crowded  that,  with  luck,  standing 


Tl  AUTHOR  S  PREFACE 

room  in  a  corridor  only  was  obtainable.  Many  persons  traveled 
on  the  roofs  of  the  coaches,  and  I  have  seen  them  climbing  down 
and  hanging  on  between  the  carriages  while  passing  through  a 
tunnel!  There  was  only  one  good  train  from  Rumania  west- 
ward, the  Simplon  Orient  Express,  and  as  it  passed  through  Jugo- 
slavia we  had  reluctantly  to  abandon  our  visit  to  Hungary  and 
Austria. 

The  reports  were  written  under  certain  disadvantages  arising 
out  of  the  political  situation  in  Ireland.  My  diaries,  written  in 
the  form  of  letters,  were  seized  by  the  British  military  authori- 
ties. Fortunately,  my  note-books  were  not  discovered,  and  I  have 
therefore  been  able  to  supply  the  technical  details,  but  by  the  loss 
of  my  record  of  casual  remarks  and  impressions  my  report  has 
been  deprived  of  much  that  would  not  only  have  made  it  pleas- 
anter  to  read  but  would  also  have  thrown  light  on  the  social  condi- 
tions which  influence  cooperative  movement  in  the  various  places 
I  visited. 

I  should  like  to  take  this  opportunity  of  thanking  those  who  by 
their  hospitality  and  kindness  made  it  possible  for  me  to  learn 
much  that  would  otherwise  have  been  difficult  to  discover.  I 
should  particularly  mention  Signor  Fortis  of  Milan,  Dr.  Costanso 
of  the  International  Institute  of  Agriculture  at  Rome,  Signor 
Mami  at  Bologna,  Signor  Zanchetta  at  Treviso,  MM.  Galyer 
and  Vukmir  at  Zagreb,  the  Secretaries  of  the  Cooperative  Unions 
at  Ljubljana,  Split  and  Sarajevo,  and,  last  but  not  least  in  Jugo- 
slavia, M.  M.  Avramovitch  and  Dr.  Prohaska  of  the  Union  of 
Belgrade,  to  whom  I  owe  more  than  I  can  well  express.  In 
Rumania  the  Director  of  the  Union  of  Credit  Societies  and  the 
Director  of  the  Union  of  Agricultural  Societies,  and  M.  G. 
Mladenatz  and  M.  Teodorescu,  who  accompanied  me  on  visits  to 
societies,  were  all  of  the  greatest  assistance  and  kindness.  M. 
Lupu  also  gave  me  valuable  help. 

DiARMID  COFFEV. 

Dublin,  Ireland, 
/luffust,  1921. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction 1 

Part  I, — ^The  Effects  of  the  War  on  Cooperation  in 
Jugoslavia 

General  Conditions 3 

Serbia I  6 

Croatia 19 

Slovenia 29 

Dalmatia _ ^33 

Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.- 35 

Industrial  Cooperatives  in  Jugoslavia  and  General  Conclusions 41 

Conclusion 43 

Part  II. — ^The  Effects  of  the  War  on  Cooperation  in 

Rumania 

People's  Banks,  Agricultural  Conditions  and  the  War 45 

The  New  National  Organizations.-- 56 

Urban  Cooperation 65 

Part  III. — ^The  Effects  of  the  War  on  Cooperation  in 
North  Italy 

General  Organization 71 

Socialist  and  Catholic  Groupings 73 

Consumers  Societies 75 

Cooperative  Productive  Societies 79 

The  Movement  in  Milan 79 

The  Movement  in  Genoa 84 

The  Movement  in  Venetia 88 

The  Agricultural  Cooperatives 91 

Index. 97 


INTRODUCTION 

The  cooperative  movement  as  a  whole  seems  to  have  survived 
the  war  more  successfully  than  many  other  forms  of  enterprise. 
In  Central  Europe  reports  show  that,  comparatively  speaking,  at 
least,  the  cooperative  societies  have  made  progress  since  the 
World  War.  In  France  and  Switzerland  all  forms  of  coopera- 
tion are  flourishing,  and  in  the  former  there  has  been  some  co- 
operative effort  for  reorganizing  the  devastated  areas.  In  the 
countries  with  which  this  report  deals  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
cooperation  has  demonstrated  its  efficiency  and  elasticity  in  meet- 
ing economic  difficulties.  Where  private  enterprise  has  failed, 
cooperation  has  been  able  to  insure  the  fair  distribution  of  sup- 
plies. It  has  kept  the  economic  nation  alive  in  many  districts 
where  other  forms  of  trade  have  actually  ceased  to  function. 

This  must  largely  be  ascribed  to  the  fact  that  the  cooperative 
societies  command  the  confidence  of  their  members  and  are 
therefore  regarded  as  of  especial  importance  when  rapid  fluctua- 
tions in  value  encourage  profiteering  and  speculative  buying.  The 
value  of  this  confidence  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  Southeastern 
Europe  not  only  did  the  Governments  of  Serbia  and  Rumania  use 
their  cooperative  societies  as  the  means  of  distributing  essential 
commodities,  but  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian  Governments 
actually  used  cooperative  societies  formed  by  members  of  the 
subject  races  of  their  old  dominions  both  for  collecting  agricul- 
tural products  and  for  distributing  manufactured  goods. 

The  more  particular  reasons  why  cooperation  has  gained 
rather  than  lost  by  the  economic  catastrophe  of  the  War  are : 
( 1 )  The  increase  in  the  cost  of  living  has  made  the  savings  ef- 
fected by  cooperative  purchasing  of  great  importance  to  the  vast 
bulk  of  the  people  of  Europe.  (2)  The  continued  necessity  of 
distributing  has  controlled  necessities  of  life,  such  as  bread,  salt, 
flour  and  tobacco.  (3)  The  general  upset  of  international  trade 
has  made  the  procuring  of  the  raw  materials  of  agriculture  (seeds. 


2  INTRODUCTION 

manures,  etc.)  more  difficult  and  has  therefore  reacted  in  favor 
of  cooperative  supply.  (4)  The  rapid  change  from  large  estates 
to  small  holdings  which  is  taking  place  in  the  Balkans  and  to 
tome  extent  in  Italy  is  causing  a  development  of  agricultural  co- 
operation. (5)  The  spread  of  revolutionary  and  communistic 
ideas  in  Europe  has  caused  the  governments  of  the  countries  in 
question  to  favor  a  movement  which,  by  providing  a  means  of 
solving  economic  difficulties,  may  make  actual  revolution  less 
probable. 

Cooperation  differs  greatly  in  the  three  countries  with  which 
this  report  deals.  In  Jugoslavia  it  was,  except  for  Serbia  itself, 
largely  political  and  anti-Austro-Hungarian  in  its  aim.  In 
Rumania  it  is  very  much  in  the  hands  of  government  departments, 
and  in  Italy  it  is  mainly  political  and  in  the  control  of  the  different 
political  parties.  But  dspite  these  differences  the  main  stream 
of  cooperation  is  the  same.  It  is  at  bottom  a  democratic  move- 
ment, with  the  well-being  of  the  groups  of  individuals  forming  the 
societies  as  its  object.  It  is  open  to  all  citizens  of  the  state  and 
in  so  far  its  aim  is  for  the  well-being  of  the  state.  Europe  is  now 
in  a  state  of  disorganization  and  change,  and  the  cooperative 
societies  everywhere  represent  a  stabilizing  element  which  can 
adapt  itself  to  change  without  violence.  In  Jugoslavia  and 
Rumania  it  is  clear  that  a  united  cooperative  movement  will  be 
a  great  element  of  strength.  They  are  both  agricultural  coun- 
tries, where  cooperation  takes  on  a  simple  and  unifying  form.  In 
Italy  the  problem  is  more  difficult  and  the  elements  of  discord 
more  obvious.  What  the  end  will  be  there  it  is  impossible  to  say; 
but  whatever  may  happen,  Italy  is  the  country  which  has  led  the 
way  in  cooperative  production  and  the  application  of  the  princi- 
ples of  cooperation  to  industry. 


PART  I 

THE  EFFECTS  OF  THE  WAR  ON  COOPERATION  IN 
JUGOSLAVIA 

General  Conditions 

The  cooperative  movement  in  Jugoslavia  was  strong  previous 
to  the  War  and  has  emerged  from  the  struggle  stronger  than 
before;  but  its  orientation  has  been  completely  changed  and  its 
character  is  undergoing  great  modification.  Jugoslavia  is  formed 
of  a  number  of  the  states  which  were  part  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
Empire  but  which  at  the  end  of  the  War  broke  away  from  that 
empire  and  joined  themselves  to  Serbia.  The  three  main  divi- 
sions of  the  population — Serbs,  Croats  and  Slovenes — recognized 
the  King  of  Serbia  as  the  head  of  their  united  country,  and  called 
their  new  kingdom  the  Kingdom  of  the  Serbs,  Croats  and  Slovenes 
(S.  H.  S.  Monarchy).  This  is  still  the  official  title  of  the  new 
state;  but  the  name  Jugoslav  or  Southern  Slav  is  a  generic  term 
for  all  these  people  and  the  name  Jugoslavia  is  more  convenient 
than  S.  H.  S.  Monarchy  and  is  therefore  adopted  in  this  report. 
It  is  probable  that  the  name  Jugoslavia  will  be  officially  recog- 
nized before  very  long,  as  it  is  already  generally  used  by  the  peo- 
ple of  that  country. 

The  divisions  of  the  country  are,  first,  Serbia,  which  has  been 
an  independent  country  since  it  threw  off  the  last  vestiges  of  the 
Turkish  yoke  at  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  in  1878.  It  has  an  area  of 
18,650  square  miles,  and  its  estimated  population  in  1911  was 
2,957,207,  of  whom  about  2,900,000  belonged  to  the  Greek 
Orthodox  Church.  The  country  is  almost  entirely  rural.  Bel- 
grade is  the  only  big  town,  but  it  has  less  than  100,000  inhabi- 
tants. The  Rivers  Save  and  Danube  form  the  northern  bound- 
ary of  Serbia,  and  north  of  the  Danube  comes  the  Banat  of 
Temesvar,  a  portion  of  which,  at  the  end  of  the  World  War, 


4  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

cmme  into  Serbian  hands.  North  of  the  Save  lies  Slavonia,  and 
east  of  Slavonia,  crossing  some  of  the  middle  ranges  of  the  Save, 
Croatia.  These  two  provinces  have  as  their  northern  boundary 
the  River  Drave  and  the  Danube.  They  form  one  administra- 
tive whole  with  its  capital  at  Zagreb  (Agram).  The  area  is 
16,421  square  miles  and  the  population  was  2,621,954  in  1910. 
The  bulk  of  the  population  is  Serb  or  Croat,  who  are  respectively 
Greek  Orthodox  and  Roman  Catholic  in  religion.  The  principal 
town,  Zagreb,  is  the  scat  of  government  for  these  two  provinces, 
which  up  to  the  end  of  the  War  were  under  Hungarian  rule. 
There  is  very  little  manufacturing  in  the  country.  It  is  chiefly 
agricultural  and  pastoral. 

West  of  Croatia  lies  the  country  of  the  Slovenes,  Carinthia, 
part  of  Styria  and  Carniola.  At  the  time  this  report  was  com- 
piled the  question  remained  unsettled  as  to  whether  the  Klagen- 
furt  area  of  Carinthia  should  be  Austrian  or  Jugoslav,  but  the 
result  of  the  Klagenfurt  plebiscite  has  given  the  whole  of  the 
district  to  Austria.  The  southern  portion  of  Styria  forms  part 
of  Jugoslavia.  Carniola,  with  its  capital  Ljubljana  (Laibach), 
is  the  most  important  part  of  the  Slovene  district  and  had  a  meas- 
ure of  local  autonomy  under  the  Austrian  Government.  East  of 
this  again  lie  Istria  and  Goritzia,  which  have  a  mixed  population 
of  Italians  and  Slavs  and  which  have  been  assigned  to  Italy.  The 
area  of  Carniola  is  3,989  square  miles  and  the  population  is  about 
530,000,  practically  all  Roman  Catholic.  There  are  a  few 
industries  in  Laibach  and  the  surrounding  district.  The  coun- 
try is  rather  hilly.  The  total  Slovene  population  of  the  Aus- 
trian Dominions  was  given  as  1,252,940  in  1910.  South  of 
Croatia  and  running  along  the  Adriatic  Coast  is  Dalmatia,  with  an 
area  of  4,955  square  miles  and  a  population  of  about  670,000, 
chiefly  Croat  Roman  Catholic.  At  the  time  of  the  making  of 
this  report  there  was  a  dispute  between  Jugoslavia  and  Italy  as  to 
ownership  of  a  portion  of  the  Dalmatian  Coast  and  Islands, 
which  was  settled  at  the  Treaty  of  Rapallo.  That  treaty  as- 
signed practically  the  whole  to  Jugoslavia,  but  left  the  Italians 
some  control  over  the  town  of  Zara  and  some  other  towns  and 
islands.     Split  (Spalato)  is  the  capital  and  seat  of  the  local  gov- 


GENERAL  CONDITIONS  5 

ernment,  which  was  at  Zara  under  Austrian  control.  East  of 
Dalmatia,  lying  between  that  province  and  the  Kingdom  of  Serbia, 
are  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  which  were  occupied  and  adminis- 
tered by  the  joint  Austro-Hungarian  Government  from  the 
Treaty  of  Berlin  in  1878  until  October,  1908,  when  the  two 
provinces  were  formally  annexed.  The  area  is  19,768  square 
miles  and  the  estimated  population  in  1912  was  1,962,411,  of 
whom  626,000  were  Mohammedan,  856,000  Greek  Orthodox 
and  451,000  Roman  Catholic.  The  population  is  mixed — Serb 
and  Croat;  the  Roman  Catholics  are  Croat,  the  Greek  Catholics 
are  Serb  and  the  Mohammedans  may  belong  to  either  race  but 
are  not  Turks. 

The  language  spoken  throughout  the  whole  country  is  the 
Southern  Slav  language,  which  is  very  like  Russian.  It  is  pos- 
sible for  an  inhabitant  from  one  part  of  the  country  to  understand 
one  from  another  part;  the  difference  in  dialect  is  said  to  be  not 
greater  than  the  difference  in  English  dialect;  the  noticeable  dis- 
tinction is  that  the  Serbs  use  the  Cyrillic  alphabet,  which  is  much 
like  Russian,  while  the  Croats  and  Slovenes  use  the  Roman  char- 
acter, but  an  educated  man  can  easily  read  either  character,  and 
the  distinction  is  not  of  much  more  importance  than  the  use  of 
Gaelic  or  Roman  characters  in  Gaelic,  or  German  or  Roman 
characters  in  German.  The  religion  has  been  mentioned  in  each 
case,  as  broadly  speaking  it  distinguishes  the  Serb  from  the  Croat 
or  Slovene,  and  as  will  be  seen  in  later  stages  of  this  report  it  has 
played  an  important  part  in  the  prewar  development  of  coopera- 
tion throughout  Jugoslavia. 

As  may  be  seen  above,  the  whole  population  is  predominantly 
rural.  There  is  no  big  manufacturing  town  in  the  whole  coun- 
try, and  except  on  the  Dalmatian  Coast,  where  there  is  a  certain 
amount  of  fishing,  the  population  depends  directly  upon  the  land 
for  its  support.  The  towns  are  administrative  and  distributing 
centers.  As  far  as  cooperation  is  concerned,  outside  of  Zagreb 
there  is  hardly  any  hon-rural  cooperation,  but  there  is  a  strong 
agricultural  cooperative  movement  in  every  province,  based  chiefly 
on  credit  societies  of  the  Raiffeisen  type,  which  have  developed 
various  forms  of  activity. 


6  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

Up  to  and  during  the  War,  what  is  now  the  cooperative  move- 
ment of  Jugoslavia  was  divided  into  four  main  branches: 
(I)  cooperation  in  Serbia  proper;  (2)  cooperation  in  those  dis- 
tricts which  are  under  Hungarian  rule;  (3)  cooperation  in  dis- 
tricts under  Austrian  rule;  and  (4)  cooperation  in  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina  under  joint  Austrian  and  Hungarian  rule. 

In  Croatia,  which  is  under  Hungarian  rule,  there  were  three 
types  of  society :  ( 1 )  societies  encouraged  and  partly  financed 
by  the  Hungarian  Government,  which  group  has  practically  dis- 
appeared; (2)  Croat  societies,  and  (3)  Serb  societies.  Both  of 
these  latter  are  largely  controlled  by  the  priests  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  and  Greek  Churches,  respectively.  Neither  had  gov- 
ernment support,  but  each  was  regarded  with  suspicion  by  the 
Hungarian  Government,  which,  however,  encouraged  anything 
which  kept  the  two  races  disunited,  and  on  the  whole  favored 
the  Croat  rather  than  the  Serb  society.  In  Slovenia  the  co- 
operative societies  were  divided  into  clerical  and  anti-clerical,  the 
latter  being  slightly,  but  only  slightly,  socialistic  in  tendency. 
In  Dalmatia  there  were  no  visible  traces  of  such  divisions,  though 
it  is  possible  that  the  Italian  element,  where  it  is  strong  enough, 
may  produce  a  division  there ;  but  at  the  time  of  writing,  the  Ital- 
ians and  the  Croats  were  strictly  kept  down  in  districts  occupied 
by  the  other  nation  and  had  little  opportunity  of  expressing  them- 
selves. In  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  the  distinction  between 
Serb  and  Croat  societies  was  much  the  same  as  in  Croatia.  The 
Mohammedans  had  no  societies.  The  cooperators  of  Jugoslavia 
wish  to  form  one  united  movement  out  of  these  various  elements, 
and  the  steps  they  are  taking  to  secure  this  unity  will  be  dealt 
with  in  the  conclusion  of  this  section  of  the  report. 

Serbia 

The  cooperative  movement  in  Serbia  proper  is  a  united  move- 
ment. Its  difficulties  were  considerably  less  than  in  the  other 
parts  of  the  country,  because  Serbia  was  a  united  and  independent 
country  without  the  strong  religious  and  political  divisions  which 
mark  the  other  portions  of  Jugoslavia. 

The  moving  spirit  of  cooperation  in  Serbia  is  M.  Avramo- 
vitch,  to  whose  energy  and  enthusiasm  cooperation  in  that  coun- 


SERBIA  7 

try  owes  a  very  great  debt.  M.  Avramovitch  is  still  far  from 
being  an  old  man,  and  he  has  seen  his  work  bear  fruit  and  what  is 
sure  to  be  lasting  fruit,  and  now  it  is  likely  that  he  will  unite  all 
Jugoslavia  in  one  consolidated  cooperative  movement,  which  will 
lead  the  Jugoslav  peasantry  into  a  better,  more  prosperous  and 
more  social  life  than  has  hitherto  been  possible  for  them. 

The  first  cooperative  society  in  Serbia  was  founded  in  1894 
and  by  1910  there  were  908  societies,  of  which  615  were  credit 
societies,  42  distributive  societies,  153  machinery  societies,  12 
dairies  and  3  wine  societies.  There  was  also  a  central  bank,  with 
its  headquarters  at  Belgrade,  for  lending  money  to  and  receiving 
deposits  from  societies.  The  bank  also  supplied  seeds,  chemicals, 
manures,  agricultural  machinery,  etc.,  and  in  1909  it  had  granted 
loans  to  the  value  of  968,000  dinars  and  received  deposits  of 
320,000.  The  state  lent  the  bank  2,000,000  dinars  free  of  inter- 
est; 5  per  cent  was  charged  by  the  bank  for  loans  and  4  per  cent 
interest  was  paid  on  deposits.  The  bank  does  not  distribute  a 
dividend  and  its  profits  and  reserves  are  indivisible,  so  that  if  it 
should  ever  come  to  be  liquidated,  after  the  state  loan  has  been 
repaid,  any  money  over  must  go  to  some  public  purpose.  The 
figures  and  facts  given  above  were  supplied  by  M.  Avramovitch 
to  the  International  Institute  of  Agriculture  at  Rome  in  1910. 
The  invasion  of  Serbia  by  the  Austrians  in  1914  and  the  Balkan 
Wars  of  1912—13  made  it  difficult  to  obtain  accurate  informa- 
tion about  cooperation  during  those  years ;  but  according  to  state- 
ments made  to  the  writer  by  M.  Avramovitch,  there  were  in  1914 
about  1,200  societies,  with  a  membership  of  about  80,000.  Of 
these  societies,  800  were  credit  societies,  200  agricultural  con- 
sumers societies,  154  machinery  societies,  8  wine  societies  and 
40  for  the  insurance  of  livestock. 

During  the  War  the  whole  of  Serbia  was  occupied  by  enemy 
forces,  and  as  a  result  the  cooperative  movement  was  brought  to 
a  complete  standstill,  though  in  some  cases  the  machinery  of  the 
societies  was  used  by  the  invaders  in  a  way  that  made  it  easy  to 
re-form  them.  It  may  thus  be  said  that  for  the  period  of  the 
War  the  history  of  cooperation  in  Serbia  is  a  complete  blank.  As 
soon  as  the  Serbs  were  able  to  reoccupy  their  country,  M. 
Avramovitch  set  himself  to  the  reorganization  of  the  cooperative 


8  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

movement,  and  by  June,  1920,  there  were  about  800  societies,  of 
which  600  were  old  societies  revived  and  200  were  newly  formed. 
The  whole  work  of  revival  was  so  new  and  was  proceeding  so 
rapidly  that  M.  Avramovitch  was  not  able  to  give  definite  and 
accurate  figures  of  the  growth  of  his  movement  since  the  war,  but 
the  figures  given  above  may  be  taken  as  being  a  near  approxima- 
tion to  the  actual  state  of  affairs.  But  the  revived  movement 
differs  to  a  considerable  extent  from  the  movement  before  the 
War,  and  this  difference,  as  might  be  expected,  is  practically  uni- 
versal throughout  the  countries  of  Europe  with  which  the  present 
writer  is  acquainted.  Before  the  War  the  need  of  credit  was 
greatly  felt  by  the  farming  community  in  general,  and  this  was 
particularly  the  case  in  undeveloped  countries  like  Serbia.  The 
War,  however,  exercised  a  profound  effect  upon  the  economic  state 
of  the  rural  population.  Prices  of  all  foodstuffs  rose  enormously 
and  at  the  same  time  the  spending  power  of  the  farmer  was 
greatly  restricted,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  procuring  goods. 
As  a  result,  at  the  end  of  the  War  the  average  peasant  found  him- 
self with  large  supplies  of  money,  though  probably  not  greatly 
increased  wealth,  as  he  had  less  stock,  and,  owing  to  the  difficulty 
of  obtaining  fertilizers,  his  land  had  in  many  cases  deteriorated  in 
quality.  An  obvious  result  of  this  was  that  for  the  moment  he 
did  not  need  credit  but  had  a  large  amount  of  currency  to  deposit. 
Almost  invariably  it  is  found  that  in  credit  societies  before  the 
War  the  loans  greatly  exceeded  the  deposits  and  after  the  War 
the  deposits  exceeded  the  loans.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was 
a  general  shortage  of  manufactured  articles  and  in  fact  of  every- 
thing which  could  not  be  grown  or  produced  in  the  immediate 
district.  Transport  in  Eastern  Europe  was  slow  and  bad,  rail- 
way bridges  were  usually  temporary  structures,  over  which  a  train 
could  pass  only  very  slowly,  rolling-stock  was  heavily  depleted 
and  out  of  repair,  and  fuel  was  bad  and  insufficient.  The  need, 
therefore,  was  not  credit  societies  but  supply  societies,  which  were 
organized  for  the  distribution  of  the  necessities  of  life  and  manu- 
factured goods  in  general.  The  formation  of  these  societies  was 
to  some  extent  stimulated  by  the  fact  that  the  government  used 


SERBIA  9 

cooperative  societies  of  all  kinds  for  the  distribution  of  govern- 
ment monopolies,  such  as  tobacco  and  salt,  during  the  War. 

The  Union  of  Serbian  Cooperative  Societies  at  Belgrade 
{Glavni  savez  Srpskih  Zemljoradnickih  zadruga),  of  which  M. 
Avramovitch  is  secretary,  is  at  once  an  organizing  and  a  whole- 
sale society.  Its  function  as  an  organizing  body  consists  of  giv- 
ing advice  and  help  to  societies  which  get  into  difficulties,  auditing 
their  accounts  and  lending  money  through  the  cooperative  bank 
which  is  affiliated  with  the  Union.  Besides  the  inspection  work, 
the  Union  has  courses  in  the  theory  of  cooperation,  accounting 
and  bookkeeping,  cooperative  law,  management,  etc.  Its  whole- 
sale business  is  carried  on  in  a  storehouse  attached  to  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Union,  which  has  stores  of  the  chief  necessities 
of  life.  Since  the  demand  for  loans  has  fallen  off,  the  whole- 
sale business  has  expanded;  the  general  need  of  supplies  felt 
throughout  Serbia  has  caused  a  great  increase  in  the  wholesale 
trade.  This  makes  up  for  the  decrease  in  profits  through  the 
bank.  The  societies  pay  10  per  cent  of  their  profits  to  the  Union, 
which  is  the  primary  source  of  revenue. 

Serbia  is  very  badly  developed  as  regards  transport.  There 
are  very  few  lines  of  railway  and  most  of  the  roads  are  mere 
tracks,  though  some  main  roads  have  been  made  and  must  at  one 
time  have  been  good,  but  the  result  of  heavy  traffic  during  the 
War  has  greatly  reduced  their  quality.  During  the  winter 
months,  when  there  is  not  sufficient  snow  for  sledges,  the  by- 
roads are  practically  impassable.  This  does  not,  however,  very 
seriously  interfere  with  the  economic  side  of  the  nation,  as  what 
is  lost  in  the  easy  supply  of  manufactured  goods  is  gained  in  the 
practical  self-sufficiency  of  each  district.  The  Serbian  clothes  are 
practically  all  home-made  from  wool  spun  by  the  women  and 
woven  by  them.  They  also  weave  cotton  yarn  and  hemp,  which 
latter  is  grown  in  the  country.  Some  cotton  is  grown  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  country;  silk  is  also  produced.  The  princi- 
pal crops  are  wheat,  barley,  oats,  maize,  rye  and  roots;  a  consid- 
erable quantity  of  plums  are  grown  and  a  strong  form  of  brandy 
made  from  them,  and  the  cultivation  of  vines  for  wine-making  is 


10  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

pretty  general.  Cattle-raising  and  dairy  products  form  another 
important  part  of  the  national  economy. 

Owing  to  the  difficulties  of  transport,  which  were  greatly  ac- 
centuated by  the  bad  condition  of  the  railways  already  referred 
to,  it  was  necessary  to  confine  the  visits  to  societies  to  a  small  area, 
and  all  the  societies  to  which  particular  reference  will  be  made 
as  examples  of  the  type  of  society  found  in  Serbia  lie  in  a  district 
about  40  miles  south  of  Belgrade,  and  in  no  case  more  than  10 
miles  from  the  main  line  of  railway  to  Nish  and  Constantinople. 
The  societies  in  this  area  are  some  of  the  best  in  the  country  and 
include  agricultural  distributive  societies,  implement  societies, 
wine  societies  and  credit  societies. 

The  first  society  visited  was  at  Mladenovac,  a  railway  station 
and  small  country  town,  where  there  is  a  consumers'  society,  one 
of  the  few  distributive  societies  which  are  not  purely  rural.  It 
had  been  founded  only  seven  months  and  its  membership  was 
75,  composed  chiefly  of  employes  of  the  state  (post  office,  rail- 
way, etc.)  and  very  few  peasant  members.  The  chief  goods  sup- 
plied were  sugar,  coflfee,  rice,  boots  and  shoes,  clothes,  etc.,  al- 
though it  supplied  a  small  quantity  of  agricultural  seeds  and 
manures.  Its  supplies  were  bought  from  the  Union  of  Serbian 
Societies  at  Belgrade.  The  fact  that  Mladenovac  is  a  town  im- 
plies that  there  is  a  greater  demand  for  manufactured  goods  and 
for  foodstuffs  than  in  a  purely  agricultural  district.  The  capital 
of  the  society  is  8,000  dinars,  divided  into  shares  of  50  dinars,  of 
which  no  member  may  hold  more  than  ten  shares.  The  turnover 
averages  from  5,000  to  6,000  dinars  a  month,  but  occasionally 
the  difficulty  of  getting  supplies  is  so  great  that  business  is  prac- 
tically suspended.  The  society  sells  considerably  cheaper  than 
ordinary  shops;  for  example,  coflfee  was  selling  at  20  dinars  a  kilo 
and  the  current  price  was  24.  The  local  shopkeepers  naturally 
disliked  the  society,  but  so  far  have  made  no  eflforts  to  organize 
to  undersell  it.  There  was  no  society  in  Mladenovac  before  the 
War  and  perhaps  local  traders  had  not  yet  grasped  the  idea  of 
trying  to  ruin  the  society  by  selling  for  a  time  at  a  loss.  The 
secretary  of  the  society,  from  whom  this  information  was  ob- 
tained, was  teacher  for  the  local  state  school,  and  a  full-time 


SERBIA  11 

manager  was  employed  at  a  salary  of  450  dinars  a  month.  It  is 
probable  that  the  cooperative  society  in  Mladenovac  will  grow 
into  an  important  one,  as  arrangements  were  being  made  to  start 
a  corn-selling  society,  which  the  peasants  of  the  surrounding  dis- 
tricts and  their  cooperative  societies  were  to  finance,  and  it  was 
expected  that  the  state  would  also  come  to  their  assistance. 
This  would  undoubtedly  cause  the  cooperative  society  in  Mlade- 
novac to  become  of  more  importance  to  peasants  of  the  neighbor- 
hood. The  existing  society  is  an  example  of  a  society  largely 
created  by  post-war  conditions  and  the  scarcity  of  supplies. 

At  Koracica,  about  six  miles  from  Mladenovac,  there  are  three 
agricultural  societies,  a  threshing  society  and  a  supply  society. 
The  village  of  Koracica  is  a  small  group  of  scattered  houses. 
The  peasants  are  practically  all  small  farmers,  with  farms  rang- 
ing from  15  to  30  acres;  the  biggest  farm  in  the  district  is  only 
125  acres.  The  land  is  good,  a  considerable  number  of  cattle 
and  pigs  are  reared  and  wheat  is  grown.  There  are  also  orchards 
and  most  of  the  houses  have  small  vegetable  patches.  The 
credit  society  was  founded  in  1900  by  6S  members  and  in  two 
years  increased  to  108,  but  by  1912  it  had  fallen  to  30  members. 
The  reason  given  by  the  secretary  for  this  falling  off  was  that  the 
president  of  the  society  took  more  interest  in  politics  than  in 
cooperation,  and  as  a  result  he  offended  a  large  number  of  the 
members.  Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  World  War  the  member- 
ship remained  at  30  and  during  the  War  the  work  of  the  society 
was  suspended  altogether.  On  the  Austrians  occupying  the  coun- 
try, the  secretary  hid  in  his  shoes  such  money  as  he  had  belonging 
to  the  society  and  tried  to  escape  to  southern  Serbia.  He  was 
not  able  to  make  good  his  escape  and  had  to  return,  but  succeeded 
in  concealing  the  money.  The  Austrians  destroyed  all  the  books 
of  the  society  and  demolished  its  premises  and  furniture,  and  the 
result  was  that  it  was  possible  to  get  only  a  general  statement  as 
to  the  condition  of  the  society  before  the  War. 

The  credit  society  has  first  of  all  a  savings  fund  into  which 
each  member  is  compelled  to  pay  one  dinar  a  week.  The  sum 
formed  by  these  savings  can  not  be  withdrawn  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  committee  of  the  society,  and  if  a  member  wishes 


12  THE  CXX)PERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

money  he  must  borrow  from  the  society.  On  the  death  of  a 
member  his  savings  are  payable  to  his  family,  but  in  most  cases 
they  nominate  one  among  themselves  to  take  the  place  of  the 
deceased  member.  Six  per  cent  is  paid  on  savings  and  10  per 
cent  is  charged  for  loans.  Besides  this  compulsory  savings  fund, 
members  are  entitled  to  deposit  money,  on  which  8  per  cent  is 
paid.  The  society  which  was  founded  in  1900  bought  a  steam 
threshing  set  in  1902,  which  was  used  to  thresh  for  both  mem- 
bers and  non-members.  The  payment  for  the  threshing  was 
taken  in  kind,  5  per  cent  being  taken  from  members  and  8  per 
cent  from  non-members.  As  the  books  were  destroyed,  it  was 
not  possible  to  obtain  any  accurate  figures  as  to  the  progress  of 
this  society.  Figures  for  the  year  1912,  however,  were  avail- 
able, in  which  year  the  savings  amounted  to  4,098  dinars,  deposits 
to  1,284  dinars,  loans  to  1,576  dinars,  the  reserve  fund  to  500 
dinars,  and  that  year  the  reserve  was  spent  on  repairing  the 
threshing-machine.  The  next  year  for  which  any  figures  could 
be  procured  was  the  year  1919,  when  the  savings  had  reached 
4,143  dinars  and  the  reserve  fund  no  less  than  6,000  dinars.  This 
large  increase  in  the  reserve  fund  in  the  first  year  after  the  War 
was  made  out  of  dealings  in  grain,  which  was  at  a  very  high  price 
in  1919.  There  were  no  deposits  and  no  loans  made  in  that  year, 
and  the  reserve  was  all  spent  again  in  repairing  the  threshing- 
machine,  which  had  suffered  from  want  of  renewals  during  the 
War.  Membership  in  1919  increased  to  120,  or  four  times  the 
pre-war  number.  This  increase  is  partly  accounted  for  by  the  fact 
that,  owing  to  an  alteration  in  the  Serbian  law,  a  society  which 
deals  with  members  only  is  entitled  to  a  reduction  of  taxation. 
Up  to  July,  1920,  the  savings  of  the  society  amountd  to  4,669 
dinars.  From  this  account  it  would  appear  as  though  the  thresh- 
ing society  and  the  credit  society  were  one.  In  theory,  they  are 
two  separate  societies,  and  the  threshing  society  continued  to 
work  right  through  the  War  during  the  Austrian  occupation, 
while  the  credit  society  was  brought  to  a  complete  standstill.  But 
when  it  is  realized  that  the  committee  of  these  two  societies  were 
the  same  persons,  the  membership  the  same,  that  the  books  of  the 
prewar  and  war  periods  were  lost,  and  that  since  the  War  the  ac- 


SERBIA  13 

counts  of  the  two  societies  have  been  kept  as  a  single  account,  the 
reader  can  easily  understand  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  distinguish 
between  them.  The  noticeable  fact  in  the  above  account  is  that 
since  the  War  there  have  been  neither  deposits  nor  loans  and 
that  the  credit  society  is  simply  a  sort  of  savings  bank  which  also 
makes  money  by  owning  a  threshing  society. 

The  reason  why  there  are  no  loans  or  deposits  is  that  the  need 
for  loans  has  practically  disappeared,  for  the  reasons  already 
given,  while  deposits  have  been  attracted  to  an  agricultural  sup- 
ply society,  which  was  formed  in  1910  by  the  same  30  members 
who  formed  the  credit  and  threshing  society.  Its  original  capital 
was  66S  dinars,  and  it  took  deposits  which  came  to  1,561  dinars. 
The  society  had  a  somewhat  inglorious  existence  up  to  1912,  when 
its  membership  had  dropped  to  28.  From  1912  to  1919  no 
figures  were  to  be  had;  by  July,  1920,  there  were  150  members 
and  50  new  applications  for  membership,  but  the  new  members 
had  to  wait  to  be  enrolled,  as  in  Serbia  the  approval  of  a  district 
magistrate  is  necessary  for  the  enrollment  of  members  of  a  co- 
operative society.  The  society  completely  disappeared  during 
the  War,  so  that  it  may  be  said  that  this  agricultural  society  is 
practically  a  new  creation.  In  1912  its  turnover  came  to  only 
about  2,000  dinars,  while  in  1919  purchases  amounted  to  33,600 
dinars  and  sales  to  31,400  dinars,  and  in  July  the  capital  con- 
sisted of  3,295  dinars  share  capital  and  3,079  dinars  deposits,  a 
total  of  6,374  dinars.  The  society  deals  in  but  few  commodities, 
as  the  district  is  practically  self-supporting.  Its  chief  business  is 
in  clothes  and  copper  sulphate;  coffee,  salt  and  matches  are  dis- 
tributed through  the  society  by  the  commune,  but  are  controlled 
articles.  It  had  just  begun  to  buy  pigs  and  sheep  from  its  mem- 
bers, kill  them  and  sell  the  dressed  meat,  but  this  is  only  a  very 
small  business  and  amounts  to  about  three  animals  a  month. ^ 

The  members  of  all  the  societies  in  Koracica  are  much  inter- 
ested in  the  proposed  grain  society  at  Mladenovac,  which  they 
think  will  be  a  great  benefit  to  the  country. 

*  It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  that  during  the  last  years  of  the  War 
several  Irish  agricultural  cooperative  societies  started  killing  pigs  for  the  benefit 
of  their  members. 


14  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

The  biggest  wine  society  in  the  country  is  at  Selo-Banja,  about 

15  miles  from  Koracica.  The  road  is  partly  an  absolute  track. 
with  ruts  varying  from  a  few  inches  to  a  couple  of  feet  deep,  and 
partly  a  high  road,  sections  of  which  are  excellent  and  sections 
almost  impassable.  Selo-Banja  is  near  a  light  railway  running 
from  Mladenovac  to  Arangjelovac.  The  society  was  founded 
in  1903  by  19  members;  each  member  took  one  share  of  50 
dinars  for  every  thousand  vines  he  owned,  and  the  Cooperative 
Union  at  Belgrade  lent  the  society  two  dinars  for  every  dinar  of 
share  capital  subscribed.  This  money  was  repaid  by  setting 
aside  5  paras  (centimes)  for  every  liter  of  wine  sold.  The 
original  share  capital  was  7,000  dinars,  so  that  the  society  started 
with  a  total  of  21,000  dinars.  It  was  four  years  before  the 
society  had  erected  its  buildings  and  actually  started  making  wine, 
and  13  wagon-loads  of  grapes  were  made  into  wine  in  1907. 
Each  wagon  holds  about  10,000  kilos  of  grapes  which  makes 
about  6,000  kilos  of  wine.  By  1911  the  society  had  increased 
to  100  members,  and  the  capacity  of  the  cellars  had  to  be  en- 
larged from  15  wagon-loads  to  95.  The  books  of  the  society 
were  lost  during  the  War,  so  that  all  the  information  prior  to 
1918  was  derived  from  the  recollection  of  members,  except  the 
price  paid  for  the  grapes.  In  1911  the  share  capital  was  about 
50,000  dinars  and  there  was  no  appreciable  change  up  to  the  be- 
ginning of  the  War.  The  society  buys  grapes  at  the  market  price 
from  members  only  and  does  not  trade  with  non-members,  and  a 
bonus  is  paid  out  of  the  profits  made  when  the  wine  is  sold.  The 
following  prices  per  100  kilograms  show  the  benefit  gained  by 
the  members  of  the  society : 

Market  price  Society's  price 
Dinars  Dinars 

1911 21.24  30.65 

1912 24.65  26.67 

1913 21.78  38.68 

1914 29J7  44.48 

The  Austrians  had  not  reached  Selo-Banja  until  October  25, 
1915,  just  at  the  end  of  the  wine-making  season.  They  seized 
about  6,000  kilos  of  old  wine,  132,000  kilos  of  new  wine,  and 
2,000  kilos  of  brandy.     They  also  seized  the  society's  buildings 


SERBIA  15 

and  continued  to  work  the  society,  but  in  their  own  interest  and 
not  cooperatively.  They,  however,  paid  for  the  grapes  they 
used  at  a  very  fair  rate,  namely,  40  crowns  per  hundred  kilos  in 
1916  and  50  crowns  per  hundred  kilos  in  1917.  The  rate  of 
exchange  between  the  crown  and  the  dinar  was  quite  artificial,  as 
the  Austrians  compelled  the  Serbians  to  take  1  crown  for  2 
dinars. 

After  the  War,  the  Jugoslav  Government  stabilized  the  crown 
at  the  artificial  price  of  4  crowns  to  1  dinar.  The  value  of  money 
had  fallen  very  heavily  between  1914  and  1918,  when  the  Aus- 
trians retired.  The  society  was  re-formed  as  quickly  as  possible 
after  the  retreat  of  the  Austrians  and  actually  restarted  work 
on  October  26,  1919,  exactly  four  years  from  the  date  of  its 
capture.  In  that  year  it  made  36  wagons  of  grapes  into  wine, 
for  which  it  paid  185  dinars  per  100  kilos.  There  were  103  mem- 
bers on  the  re-forming  of  the  society  and  by  July,  1920,  this  num- 
ber had  risen  to  107.  The  principal  damage  done  by  the  Austrians 
was  that  they  removed  most  of  the  small  barrels  belonging  to  the 
society  and  a  number  of  coopers  were  busily  at  work  making  new 
barrels. 

The  society  does  not  confine  itself  to  wine-making,  but  does  a 
small  trade  in  all  kinds  of  agricultural  requirements.  The 
finance  of  the  society  is  much  simplified  by  credit  given  by  the 
Union  at  Belgrade.  The  usual  procedure  is  that  when  the  grapes 
have  been  brought  to  the  society  an  estimate  is  made  of  the  value 
of  the  crop  and  75  per  cent  of  this  sum  is  borrowed  from  the 
Union.  The  market  price  is  then  paid  for  the  grapes  and  when 
the  wine  is  finally  sold  the  Union  is  repaid  and  the  balance  of 
profit  is  distributed  among  the  members  in  proportion  to  the 
grapes  supplied.  The  interest  charged  by  the  Union  for  these 
short-term  loans  is  5  per  cent  and  only  3  per  cent  is  charged  for 
long-term  loans  on  buildings.  There  is  a  binding  rule  compelling 
members  to  sell  their  grapes  to  the  society,  similar  to  the  rule 
compelling  the  owners  of  cows  to  bring  their  milk  to  Irish  cream- 
eries, and  they  are  also  compelled  to  keep  their  vineyards  in 
order,  subject  to  inspection  by  officers  of  the  society.  A  mem- 
ber may  resign,  but  his  capital  is  retained  for  two  years  as  a 


16  THE  CX)OPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

security  against  any  damage  the  society  may  suffer  by  his  resigna- 
tion; the  liability  of  shareholders  is  unlimited.  Roughly,  one 
third  of  the  farmers  of  the  district  are  members  of  the  society. 
The  reason  for  this  comparatively  small  membership  is  stated  to 
be  local  political  enmity  and  personal  quarrels  in  the  district. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  this  regrettable  state  of  affairs  will  not  continue; 
the  society  as  such  is  quite  non-political. 

The  manager  of  another  wine  society  at  Smederevo  (Semen- 
dria),  a  town  on  the  Danube  about  30  miles  below  Belgrade, 
stated  that  his  society,  which  was  founded  in  1909  and  began  to 
work  in  1911,  had  suffered  more  heavily  than  the  society  at  Selo- 
Banja,  as  Smederevo  was  the  scene  of  heavy  fighting,  in  the  course 
of  which  the  buildings  were  partially  destroyed  by  fire,  and 
finally  the  Austrians  on  their  retreat  blew  up  a  large  ammunition 
dun^,  which  added  to  the  destruction.  They  estimated  the  dam- 
age and  loss  involved  at  600,000  dinars.  This  society  started 
with  a  capital  of  30,000  dinars  and  25  members  and  increased  to 
35  members  in  1914.  It  is  run  on  almost  exactly  similar  lines 
to  the  society  at  Selo-Banja,  except  that  the  liability  of  members 
is  limited  to  ten  times  their  shareholding.  The  prices  paid  for 
grapes  per  100  kilograms  are  as  follows : 

Market  price  Society's  price 
Dinars  Dinars 

1911 23.10  23.50 

1912 23.55  35.97 

191S 32.70  53.69 

1914 40.77  62.80 

This  society  had  just  restarted  work  in  1920.  Smederevo  was 
also  the  seat  of  a  big  grain  society  which  was  completely  destroyed 
during  the  War,  but  its  rebuilding  was  in  progress  in  1920. 

The  Markovec  Agricultural  Society,  about  20  miles  beyond 
Mladenovac  on  the  line  from  Belgrade  to  Nish,  is  the  most  suc- 
cessful agricultural  store  in  Serbia  and  in  many  ways  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  of  its  kind  to  be  found  anywhere. 

Markovec  is  a  scattered  village  something  like  Koracica  and 
Selo-Banja.  The  Agricultural  Society  has  a  two-story  building, 
a  rare  thing  in  Serbian  rural  districts.  As  usual,  the  books  were 
lost  or  destroyed  during  the  Austrian  invasion,  so  that  informa- 


SERBIA  17 

tion  about  the  Society  was  procurable  only  from  the  recollections 
of  the  manager  and  members.  All  that  was  to  be  learned  of 
the  prewar  history  of  the  Society  was,  briefly,  that  it  was  founded 
in  1902  by  25  members,  each  of  whom  held  one  lO-dinar  share. 
They  sold  sugar,  salt,  coffee,  oil,  etc.  By  1906  the  accumulated 
profits  of  the  Society  amounted  to  30,000  dinars,  10,000  of  which 
they  spent  on  building  the  premises  where  they  are  at  present  sit- 
uated. By  1915  membership  had  risen  to  300.  Then  came  the 
Austrians,  who  seized  everything  belonging  to  the  Society,  to  the 
value  of  about  80,000  dinars,  and  did  not  pay  one  penny  compen- 
sation. 

The  large  amount  of  goods  in  the  Society  dated  from  the 
Turkish  and  Bulgarian  Wars  of  1913,  which  had  had  the  result 
of  reducing  demand  and,  therefore,  left  considerable  stocks  in 
the  hands  of  the  Society.  Before  the  War  the  Society  did  a 
large  business  in  selling  its  members'  products — maize,  wheat, 
corn,  eggs,  etc. 

The  Society  did  not  get  to  work  again  until  January,  1920, 
and  the  turnover  for  the  first  six  months  of  that  year  was  126,000 
dinars,  almost  entirely  derived  from  the  sales  to  members.  The 
only  sales  made  on  behalf  of  members  were  6,000  eggs,  valued  at 
1,200  dinars.  This  was  a  great  falling  off  since  1915,  when  they 
had  sold  15  wagons  of  maize,  3  wagons  of  wheat  and  a  very  large 
quantity  of  eggs.  The  Society  deals  with  non-members,  but  as 
there  are  about  300  members  and  only  250  houses  in  the  district 
the  non-members'  trade  is  not  great.  It  deals  in  all  classes  of  the 
necessaries  of  agriculturists,  including  clothes,  foodstuffs,  seeds 
and  manures,  etc.  Besides  being  an  ordinary  agricultural  store, 
the  Society  acts  as  a  credit  bank  and  performs  the  function  both 
of  the  Raiffeisen  and  Schulze-Delitzsch  Bank.  It  lends  money 
both  to  agriculturists  on  ordinary  short-term  credits  and  to 
artisans,  shoemakers,  etc.,  and  sells  the  products  of  these  latter 
on  commission.  It  also  takes  deposits,  which  in  1915  amounted 
to  15,000  dinars;  10  per  cent  is  charged  for  loans  and  7  per  cent 
is  paid  on  deposits.  Deposits  up  to  1,000  dinars  are  withdraw- 
able without  notice.  The  Society  has  also  made  arrangements  for 
lendingmoney  on  long-term  loans  to  help  members  to  build  houses. 


18  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

In  addition  to  this,  if  a  member  dies  leaving  no  grown  family  to 
run  his  farm,  the  Society  itself  will  manage  the  farm  for  a  year  to 
give  the  member's  widow  or  orphans  an  opportunity  of  cither  dis- 
posing of  the  farm  or  else  of  making  arrangements  to  carry  it  on. 

Besides  the  various  economic  works  above  referred  to,  the 
Society  undertakes  social  work.  Before  the  War  it  had  a  read- 
ing room  and  library,  and  although  the  percentage  of  illiteracy 
in  Serbia  is  high  *  about  40  members  used  the  library  and  mem- 
bers who  could  read  would  read  aloud  to  those  who  could 
not.  All  the  young  people  could  read,  and  the  reading  room  and 
library  was  a  useful  social  center.  The  Society  also  employed 
a  doctor  to  come  twice  a  week  to  visit  the  members,  and  as  med- 
ical service  in  Serbia  are  not  yet  developed  this  was  a  most  useful 
work.  Both  these  forms  of  activity  had  come  to  a  stop  owing  to 
the  War  when  the  Austrians  looted  the  Society  and  had  not  been 
reestablished  by  July,  1920,  but  the  Society  means  to  reestablish 
them  at  the  first  opportunity.  They  had  not  yet  been  able  to 
find  a  new  doctor  to  pay  them  visits,  but  this  was  occupying  their 
minds.  They  propose  adding  a  bath-house  to  their  other  build- 
ings. 

To  finance  its  various  reconstructive  schemes  the  Society  ob- 
tained a  credit  of  100,000  dinars  from  the  Union  at  Belgrade. 
Up  to  July,  1920,  they  had  borrowed  70,000  dinars  and  repaid 
50,000.  The  members  have  so  thoroughly  acquired  the  habit 
of  bringing  all  their  spare  money  to  the  Society  that  it  never  has 
to  borrow  large  sums  for  a  long  period.  Before  the  War  the 
Union  used  to  charge  4  per  cent  for  this  accommodation,  but  since 
the  War  it  has  charged  7  per  cent.  The  Society  is  governed  by 
two  committees,  each  of  three  members  only — one  an  executive 
committee  and  the  second  a  supervisory  committee.  The  Society 
has  had  a  little  trouble  with  the  local  shopkeepers,  but  is  on  ex- 
cellent terms  with  the  dealers  in  corn,  eggs,  etc. 

This  Society  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in- 
stances of  cooperative  success  in  a  rural  district  in  the  world, 
which  is  in  a  great  measure  due  to  the  devotion  and  skill  of  M. 

*  lo  1900  only  17  per  cent  of  the  population  could  read  and  write,  but  there  has 
been  a  great  improvement  tincc  then. 


CROATIA  19 

Milojavich,  the  manager,  who  has  devoted  himself  to  the  Society 
from  the  beginning.  He  has  found  it  possible  to  keep  complete 
harmony  in  the  Society.  On  a  few  occasions  when  conduct  of  a 
member  has  been  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  the  community, 
the  man  is  given  a  warning  that  if  he  does  not  reform  himself 
within  a  certain  time  he  will  be  expelled  from  the  Society.  But 
so  far  no  member  has  been  expelled,  because,  as  M.  Milojavich 
has  said,  "if  we  expel  a  man  we  lose  the  whole  family,  and  if  the 
father  is  not  good  he  may  have  a  good  son  and  it  would  be  a  pity 
to  lose  the  son."  M.  Milojavich's  position  lends  a  somewhat 
patriarchal  air  to  Markovec  and  it  is  probable  that  so  successful 
and  active  a  Society  in  a  somewhat  backward  country  like  Serbia 
must  always  owe  a  great  part  of  its  success  to  the  presence  of  one 
exceptional  man.  M.  Milojavich  may  be  compared  with  Mr. 
Paddy  Gallagher  of  Dungloe  in  Donegal,  who,  dealing  with  a 
somewhat  similar  population,  has  transformed  his  district  from 
being  one  of  the  poorest  into  being  one  of  the  most  prosperous  in 
Ireland.  But  such  a  society  as  the  one  at  Markovec  tends  to  be 
imitated  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  and  so  raise  the  whole  tone  of 
the  cooperative  movement  with  which  it  is  associated. 

With  M.  Avramovitch  as  head  of  the  movement  in  Serbia 
and  a  few  men  like  M.  Milojavich  to  help  him,  it  may  be  said 
that  there  is  every  prospect  that  cooperation  in  Serbia  will  lead, 
as  much  as  follow,  the  agricultural  cooperative  movements  in  the 
world. 

Croatia 

The  cooperative  movement  in  Croatia  was  originally  divided 
into  three  main  bodies:  first,  cooperation  among  the  Croats;  sec- 
ond, cooperation  among  the  Serbs;  and  third,  cooperation  organ- 
ized by  the  Hungarian  Government.  The  last  named  was  or- 
ganized as  a  central  credit  society  at  Agram  and  Osijeh.  It  had 
considerable  state  aid.  According  to  the  Bulletin  of  the  Inter- 
national Institute  of  Agriculture  at  Rome,  by  the  end  of  1900  it 
had  formed  271  societies,  with  a  membership  of  54,952.  The 
object  of  the  society  was  principally  furnishing  credit  to  facilitate 
tTie  purchase  of  agricultural  machinery  and  seeds  and  the  purchase 
of  cattle,  in  all  of  which  works  the  state  came  to  the  aid  of  the 


20  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

cooperator.  This  organization  seems  to  have  disappeared  en- 
tirely. At  the  Congress  of  Jugoslav  Cooperative  Societies,  held 
in  Zagreb  in  June,  1920,  this  organization  was  not  represented, 
and  any  inquiries  as  to  Hungarian  cooperative  societies  were  met 
with  the  reply  that  before  the  War  the  Hungarian  Government 
had  organized  cooperative  societies  as  a  Magyarizing  influence, 
had  given  large  subventions  to  these  societies,  and  had  in  every 
way  tried  to  induce  the  peasantry  to  join  them  rather  than  the 
Serbian  or  Croatian  societies,  but  that  on  the  separation  of 
Croatia  from  Hungary  the  whole  of  this  Hungarian  organization 
had  collapsed  like  a  pack  of  cards,  and  no  trace  of  it  is  to  be  found. 
It  is  said  that  a  few  individual  societies  maintained  their  existence. 
It  was  really  impossible  for  a  foreigner  to  judge  what  actually 
happened,  as  no  doubt  any  Hungarian  oflicial  organization  would 
be  greatly  suspected  after  the  change  of  government  and  would, 
at  the  very  least,  have  to  lie  low  for  a  time. 

The  other  organizations  of  Croats  and  Serbs,  however,  were 
very  active  before  the  War.  The  political  situation  was  such 
that  both  the  Croats  and  the  Serbs  wished  to  use  every  organiza- 
tion they  possessed  to  prevent  themselves  from  becoming 
Magyarized,  and  for  this  reason  the  cooperative  movements  al- 
ways had  a  semi-political  basis,  and  were  regarded  with  extreme 
distrust  by  the  Hungarian  Government,  which,  however,  was 
accustomed  to  play  off  the  Serb  against  the  Croat  and  so  tried 
to  keep  the  two  sections  as  divided  as  possible.  The  local  gov- 
ernment of  Croatia  and  Slavonia  gave  certain  subsidies  to  the 
Croatian  and  Serb  Unions  for  special  purposes  and  they  of  course 
came  under  the  general  cooperative  law,  but  in  spite  of  these 
subsidies  and  restrictions  the  unions  remained  distinctly  political 
and  free  from  government  influence. 

There  are  three  organizations  of  rural  cooperative  societies  in 
Zagreb.  The  first  is  the  Union  of  Croatian  Rural  Cooperative 
Societies,  which  has  grown  out  of  the  Agrarian  Bank,  a  financial 
institution  opened  in  1901  for  the  benefit  of  cooperative  societies. 
At  the  end  of  1909  this  organization  included  225  societies  with 
34,350  members.  Besides  purely  credit  business,  which  amounted 
to  4,470,000  crowns,  it  dealt  in  agricultural  goods  to  the  value  of 


CROATIA  21 

1,385,000.  The  number  of  societies  before  the  War  in  1914  had 
risen  to  293;  on  December  31,  1919,  there  were  313  with  42,449 
members  or  an  average  of  135  per  society,  and  societies  were 
being  formed  at  so  rapid  a  rate  that  by  June  there  were  362  socie- 
ties. The  increase  in  societies  is  solely  post-war,  as  during  the 
War  no  new  societies  were  formed.  After  the  War  it  was  found 
that  mere  affiliation  with  the  Agrarian  Bank  was  not  a  satisfac- 
tory form  of  organization  for  the  cooperative  societies,  whose 
business  was  not  by  any  means  credit  only,  but  which  were  begin- 
ning to  take  up  all  forms  of  rural  cooperative  activity.  There- 
fore, the  Union  of  Croatian  Rural  Cooperative  Societies  was 
formed,  which  is  separate  from  the  Agrarian  Bank.  The  new 
Union  is  very  active  and  has  acquired  a  site  close  to  the  railway 
where  it  is  building  a  large  store  to  act  as  a  central  wholesale 
store,  both  for  members'  necessities  and  for  selling  produce.  The 
store  is  connected  with  the  railway  by  siding,  and  they  further 
hope  to  set  up  a  factory  for  the  manufacture  of  fertilizers.  The 
Union  comprises  313  societies,  which  have  a  total  of  42,449  mem- 
bers. The  capital  to  the  credit  of  the  Union  to  the  end  of  1919 
was  as  follows : 

Crotvns  Croiuns 

Total  receipts 4,671,000  Personal  property  of  societies  1,134,500 

Share  capital 488,801  Stocks  in  warehouse 10,000,000 

Reserves 1,464,600  Savings  deposited 6,000,000 

Current  accounts 18,000,000  Various  securities  (bonds,  etc.)  628,000 

Of  course  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  value  of  money  has 
gone  down  very  heavily  since  1914. 

The  second  organization  originated  in  the  Croatian-Slavonian 
Agricultural  Society,  which  was  an  old  society  founded  in  1847 
for  the  purpose  of  teaching  better  methods  of  agriculture,  but 
which  in  1911  formed  itself  into  a  cooperative  society,  which  con- 
cerned itself  with  the  supplying  of  farm  requisites  and  selling  the 
products  of  its  members,  though  it  continues  its  primary  function 
of  trying  to  improve  the  knowledge  of  agriculture  by  propaganda. 

The  third  society  is  the  Union  of  Serbian  Rural  Banks,  founded 
in  1897.  By  1909  it  had  2,097  societies  with  10,031  members. 
By  1912  there  were  354  societies,  of  which  216  were  in  Croatia 
and  Slavonia  and  138  in  Hungary.     This  Union  is  not  purely 


22  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

Croatian,  but  was  formed  to  be  a  rallying  point  for  the  Serbs 
throughout  all  the  Hungarian  Dominions.  In  1914  it  had  367 
societies,  which  meant  a  large  increase  in  the  number  of  societies 
in  Croatia  and  Slavonia.  In  1920  there  were  about  400  societies 
with  about  26,000  members.  This  increase  was  wholly  post-war, 
as  during  the  War  the  Serbian  Union  was  regarded  with  extreme 
distrust  by  the  Hungarian  Government  and  was  practically  closed 
down.  The  increase  is  in  a  way  greater  than  appears,  as  by  the 
Pact  of  London  10  Serbian  societies  were  lost  to  Hungary  and 
25  to  Rumania.  It  is  not  hard  to  see  why  this  closing  down  took 
place,  because  both  the  Serbian  and  Croatian  Unions  were  re- 
garded by  their  founders  largely  as  an  organization  for  consoli- 
dating the  Roman  Catholic  and  the  Greek  Catholic  Slav  popula- 
tion  of  the  Hungarian  Empire,  respectively,  and  the  Serb  Union 
was  particularly  anti-Hungarian  and  was  the  special  object  of 
Count  Tisza's  enmity.  The  Serbian  Union  was  so  entirely  con- 
ceived with  this  idea  that  it  tried  to  form  its  societies  of  never 
more  than  100  members,  so  that  each  society  would  be  so  small 
that  every  member  would  know  what  the  other  members  were 
doing,  and  if  they  saw  any  member  tending  to  become  Magyarized 
they  would  at  once  take  steps  to  bring  him  to  reason.  In  fact, 
the  average  society  had  only  about  35  members,  though  in  a  few 
cases  membership  exceeded  100,  and  one  society  had  155  mem- 
bers. In  villages  where  there  was  a  large  Serb  population  the 
custom  was  to  have  several  societies  and  the  slogan  of  the  move- 
ment was,  "Serbs,  do  not  give  up  your  land  to  Austrians  or  Hun- 
garians, but  work  to  save  and  keep  it  for  the  Serbs."  The 
society  worked  on  the  usual  Raiffeisen  system,  but  in  addition  to 
this  had  a  compulsory  weekly  payment  of  10  to  20  hellers,  which 
the  member  had  to  pay  personally  each  Sunday.  The  sum  thus 
accumulated  could  be  withdrawn  in  five  years.  This  rule  was 
partly  designed  with  the  object  of  making  the  members  meet 
once  a  week  and  so  keep  the  unity  on  the  Sunday  intact. 

As  80  per  cent  of  the  population  was  illiterate,  the  necessity  of 
frequent  personal  contact  as  a  means  of  preserving  unity  was 
greater  than  would  be  the  case  in  a  more  advanced  community. 
It  was  impossible  to  get  statistics  of  this  society  for  later  than 


CROATIA  23 

1912,  as  the  political  situation  which  rose  out  of  the  Balkan  War 
of  1913  affected  the  societies  to  such  a  degree  that  no  information 
was  to  be  had. 

The  Serbian  population  of  Croatia  is  on  the  whole  very  poor 
and  had  evidently  been  in  a  very  depressed  condition,  because  it 
was  found  that  when  the  society  was  founded  the  old  men  would 
not  join  it.  The  societies  were  much  encouraged  by  the  Greek 
Church  clergy,  of  whom  128  were  members.  The  membership 
also  included  130  teachers,  184  business  men,  chiefly  small  shop- 
keepers, and  648  village  artisans,  smiths,  cobblers,  tailors,  etc. 
All  the  rest  of  the  13,000  members  were  either  small  holders  or 
agricultural  laborers,  but  owned  between  them  about  40,000,000 
crowns'  worth  of  property,  or  an  average  of  about  10,000  crowns 
a  head,  or  £500. 

All  these  societies,  besides  doing  their  usual  credit  business,  now 
trade  in  seeds,  manures,  machinery,  etc. 

As  has  been  indicated  above,  the  societies  belonging  to  the  Ser- 
bian and  Croatian  Unions  are  principally  credit  societies,  which 
also  deal  In  agricultural  necessaries,  and  sometimes  sell  on  behalf 
of  their  members.  Before  the  War  the  loans  always  exceeded 
deposits,  but  In  Croatia,  as  in  other  parts  of  Europe,  an  effect  of 
the  War  has  been  to  Increase  the  amount  of  ready  cash  in  farmers' 
hands,  though  their  stocks,  particularly  of  cattle,  have  been 
greatly  reduced.  The  societies  belonging  to  the  Union  formed 
from  the  Croatian  and  Slavonian  Agricultural  Societies  were  prin- 
cipally buying  and  selling  societies.  As  In  Serbia,  there  is  a  gen- 
eral tendency  to  increase  the  buying  and  selling  societies  and  to 
make  these  the  important  branch  of  the  work,  while  temporarily 
at  least  the  credit  side  is  comparatively  unimportant.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  the  fact  that  the  cooperative  societies  were  used  dur- 
ing the  War  as  distributing  agencies  for  goods  controlled  by  the 
Austro-Hungarian  Government  may  have  something  to  do  with 
hastening  the  change  from  purely  credit  work,  but  it  should  be 
mentioned  that  M.  Avramovitch,  who  is  undoubtedly  the  au- 
thority on  cooperation  in  Jugoslavia,  thinks  that  this  using  of  the 
societies  as  distributing  agencies  has  not  had  any  appreciable 
effect  upon  their  nature,  though  it  may  lead  to  the  founding  of 


24  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

rural  consumers  societies,  as  it  will  have  given  members  the 
habit  of  going  to  their  societies  for  goods.  The  chief  goods  con- 
trolled by  the  state  and  distributed  through  the  societies  were 
flour,  potatoes,  coal  and  paraffin  oil,  which  cover  a  large  section 
of  the  necessities  of  life.  In  view  of  this  tendency  it  is  well  to 
describe  the  only  cooperative  store  society  belonging  to  the  Croa- 
tian Union.  It  is  situated  in  a  small  village,  Veliki  Bulcovec. 
Bukovec  is  a  small  village  lying  about  50  miles  north  of  Zagreb 
and  about  4  miles  south  of  the  River  Drave,  on  the  plain  which 
runs  straight  through  Central  Hungary.  It  is  a  scattered  village 
of  about  1,000  inhabitants  and  is  part  of  a  parish  with  a  total 
population  of  about  7,000.  These  figures  were  obtained  from 
the  parish  priest,  and  they  are  probably  approximately  accurate, 
but  to  outward  appearances  the  village  looked  as  if  it  could  not 
have  more  than  100  inhabitants.  The  country  around  is  divided 
into  vast  open  fields,  each  of  which  is  divided  into  small  plots  of 
from  a  quarter  of  an  acre  to  an  acre.  There  are  no  fences  be- 
tween the  plots;  each  plot  is  owned  by  a  different  man,  and  though 
one  man  may  own  many  plots  it  is  unlikely  that  any  two  of  them 
will  be  contiguous.  The  general  effect  is  a  large  field  of  small 
experimental  plots.  The  chief  crops  are  maize  and  peas  planted 
together,  wheat,  barley,  oats,  beets,  lucerne  and  other  forage 
crops.  There  is  one  big  landowner  in  the  district  with  a  very  up- 
to-date  farm  with  tractors,  threshing  machine  and  a  mill,  which 
supplies  electric  light  to  part  of  the  village  and  grinds  grain  for 
the  whole  district. 

There  are  two  cooperative  societies,  one  a  credit  society  and 
the  other  a  store  society.  The  parish  priest  is  the  vice-president 
and  general  adviser  of  both  societies;  the  big  landowner  is  presi- 
dent, but  as  he  resides  at  Bukovec  for  only  part  of  the  year  he  is 
not  able  to  keep  in  very  close  touch  with  the  societies.  The  credit 
society  was  founded  in  1901  as  an  ordinary  Raiffeisen  society. 
The  books  and  money  are  kept  by  the  parish  priest;  it  has  also  a 
small  library  and  reading  room  and  occasionally  procures  lec- 
turers to  give  talks  on  agricultural  subjects.  Before  the  War  the 
society  loaned  up  to  a  limit  of  1,500  crowns,  and  in  1920,  owing  to 
a  depreciation  of  the  crown,  it  loaned  up  to  15,000.     The  small- 


CROATIA 


25 


est  loan  used  to  be  about  60  crowns,  but  had  risen  to  400.  The 
average  loan  is  for  three  years  and  the  maximum  period  for  which 
a  loan  is  made  is  six  years.  Loans  were  made  at  7  per  cent  and 
depositors  were  paid  5  per  cent,  but,  as  the  amount  of  deposits 
since  the  War  has  risen  greatly  and  exceeds  the  loans,  the  rate  of 
interest  on  deposits  has  been  reduced  to  3  per  cent.  Surplus 
deposits  have  been  lent  to  the  agricultural  society,  or  placed  on 
deposit  with  the  Union  at  Zagreb.  The  following  table  shows 
the  amount  of  deposits,  loans  and  profit  for  the  years  1911  to 
1919,  inclusive: 


Year 

Deposits 

Loans 

Profits 

1911 

Crowns 
270,208 
304,221 
375,847 
393,745 
519,989 
725,532 
845,722 
1,019,338 
1,393,815 

Crowns 

329,299 

382,781 

396,162 

407,032 

295,429 

223,642 

222,219 

230,965 

250,060 

Crowns 

1912.__ 

1913.  _ 

4,250 

1914.  __ 

4,500 

1915 

3,300 

1916.__ 

2,600 

1917. 

2,000 

1918. 

1919..._ 

6,870 

From  this  table  it  can  be  seen  that  there  has  been  a  very  remark- 
able change  in  the  proportion  of  deposits  and  loans. 

The  store  society  at  Bukovec  was  founded  in  1903  and  was  the 
only  store  society  of  its  kind  belonging  to  the  Croatian  Union. 
The  membership  was  practically  the  same  as  the  credit  society, 
namely,  in  1914,  544;  in  1918,  546,  and  in  1919,  547,  so  that  its 
membership  has  not  been  affected  by  the  War.  The  premises 
consisted  of  a  small  one-story  building  with  a  shop  and  a  yard 
behind,  where  there  are  stores,  etc.  The  shop  dealt  in  general 
goods,  such  as  coffee,  candles,  soap,  hardware,  and  the  stores  in 
grain,  salt,  agricultural  machinery,  etc.  The  society  also  dealt 
in  seeds.  Besides  selling  goods  to  its  members,  the  society  buys 
their  grain  and  other  farm  produce.  It  is  managed  by  a  com- 
mittee and  manager,  who  estimated  that  about  70  per  cent  of  the 
produce  of  the  members  was  bought  by  the  society.     The  wheat 


26 


THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 


and  maize  are  ground  in  the  landlord*s  mill  and  the  flour  sold  to 
members;  the  surplus  used  to  be  sold  to  Hungary,  but  since  the 
War  has  been  sold  to  Triest.  The  Union  at  Zagreb  is  under- 
taking the  selling  of  products,'  and  hopes  in  time  to  sell  all  the 
products  of  its  member  societies,  but  up  to  1920  it  had  been  able 
to  take  only  a  small  proportion.  Eggs  are  sold  by  the  society  to 
egg  merchants.  In  1919  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  eggs 
were  packed  and  sold,  but  no  attempt  is  made  at  numbering  or 
grading  them.     The  society  trades  with  non-members. 

There  is  an  ingenious  system  of  dealing  with  the  profits,  though 
one  which  is  open  to  criticism,  namely,  instead  of  distributing 
them  on  the  Rochdale  plan,  50  per  cent  of  the  profits  are  devoted 
to  increasing  the  value  of  the  shares  and  50  per  cent  to  the  re- 
serve fund.  The  shares  were  originally  valued  at  10  crowns,  and 
the  liability  of  the  members  was  three  times  the  value  of  the 
share.  By  1919  the  shares  had  risen  to  150  crowns,  and  the 
liability  had  increased  in  proportion.  There  are  obvious  dis- 
advantages in  this  arrangement,  though  it  has  the  compensating 
advantage  that  members  who  refuse  to  join  the  society  in  its  early 
days  find  when  they  wish  to  join  that  they  must  pay  a  penalty  for 
their  lack  of  faith  in  the  society.  On  the  other  hand,  the  liability 
of  members  increases  with  the  prosperity  of  the  society,  and  bad 
bookkeeping  might  lead  to  serious  trouble.  By  1920  the  shares 
were  worth  nearly  200  crowns,  but  the  parish  priest  made  a  pro- 
posal that  the  shares  should  be  divided  into  two,  and  the  members 
permitted  to  sell  one  of  their  shares;  this  would  mitigate  some  of 
the  disadvantages  of  the  present  system.  The  following  figures 
show  the  growth  and  the  position  of  the  society: 


Year 

Turnover 

Share 
capital 

Value  of 
shares 

Profits 

Membert 

1914.- 

Crowns 
398,929 
619,733 
585,083 
746,065 
1,292,332 
4,170,179 

Crowns 
23,392 

Crowns 
43 

Crowns 
18,945 

Crowns 
544 

IQI/i 

35,360 

65 

37,834 

544 

1917 

191ft 

546 

1919 

82.0S0 

150 

198,307 

547 

CROATIA  27 

The  present  position  of  the  society  is  good.  It  has  a  share 
capital  of  82,050  crowns;  reserves,  96,835;  capital  borrowed 
from  the  local  credit  society,  206,990;  fittings,  etc.,  written  down 
to  500.  It  has  500  crowns'  worth  of  shares  in  the  Union  and 
1,500  in  the  agricultural  bank  from  which  the  Union  sprang,  and 
9,718  crowns  of  War  loan. 

Another  society  belonging  to  the  Croatian  Union  is  the  Dairy 
Society  at  Ricica,  about  10  miles  from  Karlovac.  This  was  a 
credit  society  founded  in  1911  with  38  members.  It  would  be 
merely  wearisome  to  repeat  long  lists  of  membership  and  figures, 
but  by  1920  the  society  had  230  members,  139,600  crowns  de- 
posited with  it  and  118,400  crowns  on  loan.  This  credit  society 
started  a  cooperative  dairy.  It  originally  supplied  whole  milk  to 
Zagreb,  where  they  set  up  a  retail  shop,  but  lately  they  sold  all 
their  milk  to  the  railway  administration  for  the  use  of  the  em- 
ployes. Any  surplus  milk  was  made  into  cheese.  Before  the 
War  the  society  made  no  butter,  as  Danish  butter  was  cheaper  in 
Croatia  than  Croatian  butter,  but  during  the  War  butter  was 
scarce  and  so  the  society  began  butter-making.  The  Croatians 
eat  comparatively  little  butter.  Of  the  230  members,  about  200 
can  supply  milk  from  a  total  of  about  600  cows.  Only  the  even- 
ing milk  is  sent  to  the  society,  as  the  members  keep  the  morning 
milk  for  their  own  use.  The  average  daily  supply  was  about 
750  liters  in  1920,  but  this  was  a  decided  falling  off  owing  to  a 
bad  outbreak  of  foot  and  mouth  disease.  In  1919  the  average 
receipts  were  about  2,000  liters.  During  the  War  about  300  cows 
were  requisitioned  by  the  government.  The  society's  premises 
were  very  small,  being  only  two  rooms  in  what  was  the  gate-lodge 
of  a  country  house,  and  had  very  little  machinery.  However,  the 
society  is  expanding  rapidly,  and  has  taken  over  the  country 
house  of  which  it  formerly  occupied  the  gate-lodge  and  is  turning 
it  into  a  well-equipped  dairy  and  mill.  There  will  be  also  a  saw- 
mill and  a  threshing  plant  all  run  by  a  60-horsepower  engine. 

At  Karlovac  there  is  an  agricultural  society  belonging  to  the 
Union  des  Agriculteurs,  This  society,  which  was  founded  not 
long  before  the  War,  was  not  able  to  do  much  until  1919,  when 
its  membership  was  about  200.  By  1920  its  membership  had 
risen  to  500  and  its  turnover  to  5,000,000  crowns.     Shares  were 


28  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

100  crowns  each  and  liability  500.  The  society  supplies  only 
agricultural  requirements  to  its  members  and  does  not  sell  on 
their  behalf.  All  members  have  to  pay  for  their  goods  in  ad- 
vance, so  there  is  not  much  need  for  capital.  As  Karlovac  is  an 
important  town  on  the  railroad  about  30  miles  from  Zagreb, 
the  societies  there  ought  to  flourish. 

Another  interesting  form  of  society  in  Croatia  is  the  cattle- 
breeding  society,  of  which  the  one  at  St.  Ivan  Zabno  is  a  good 
example.  It  was  founded  in  1907  as  a  result  of  the  importing 
of  a  number  of  pure-bred  Simmenthal  cattle  in  1905  by  the  Croa- 
tian Government.  The  society  was  organized  by  a  notary  in  the 
village,  who  persuaded  some  of  the  peasants  to  go  to  Baden  to 
see  how  cattle-breeding  societies  were  run.  The  Croatian  Gov- 
ernment gave  a  grant  to  pay  for  the  transport  of  cattle,  and  year 
by  year  more  cows  were  bought,  each  person  who  bought  a  pedi- 
greed cow  becoming  a  member  of  the  society.  By  1920  the 
society  had  400  members  and  1,500  beasts.  Each  member  had 
to  undertake  to  keep  Simmenthal  cattle  only,  and  such  was  the 
value  of  the  pure-bred  cattle  that  they  were  excluded  from  requisi- 
tion during  the  War.  Subscription  to  the  society  is  1  crown 
per  cow  registered  and  1  per  cent  of  all  sales  of  cattle.  The 
society  keeps  a  register  of  cows  born,  a  pedigree  book  and  a  sales 
book.  By  a  rigorous  system  of  examination  and  exclusion  tuber- 
culosis has  been  reduced  to  2  per  cent  among  the  registered  cows. 
Before  the  War  an  official  was  employed  to  test  the  quality  of  the 
milk,  but  since  the  War  this  has  been  dropped,  and  the  quantity 
only  has  been  registered  by  a  number  of  controllers,  each  of  whom 
tests  20  cows  and  tests  the  yield  once  a  month. 

These  examples  of  societies  will  serve  to  give  the  reader  an 
indication  of  the  form  of  cooperation  in  Croatia. 

The  type  of  society  in  Croatia  is  becoming  more  varied  and  the 
number  of  societies  is  steadily  and  rapidly  increasing.  The  only 
obstacle  to  success  is  the  fact  that  the  movement  is  split  up  into 
three  sections,  each  working  independently.  This  is  due  to  the 
unfortunate  history  of  the  country,  but  now  that  it  is  free  there 
is  a  good  chance  of  uniting  all  sections  of  the  people  into  one 
strong  movement.  The  fact  that  the  relations  between  the 
three  bodies  are  of  a  most  friendly  nature  should  make  unity  easy. 


SLOVENIA  29 


Slovenia 


Slovene  cooperation  has  its  chief  center  at  Ljubljana  (Lai- 
bach),  though  there  is  also  a  cooperative  community  at  Celje 
(Cille),  which  in  1918  had  109  credit  societies,  28  agricultural 
purchasing  societies,  5  wine  societies,  4  dairy  societies  and  1  mis- 
cellaneous society.  Ljubljana  is  the  center  of  three  cooperative 
unions,  of  which  the  most  important  is  the  Zadruga  Zveza,  which 
was  founded  in  1900.  The  Zadruga  Zveza  is,  like  the  Croatian 
unions,  a  very  clerical  body,  and  is  largely  controlled  by  the 
priests  (Roman  Catholic).  At  the  end  of  1919  this  union  had 
founded  societies  of  which  25  were  Raiffeisen  credit  societies,  40 
Schulze-Delitzsch  credit  societies,  66  agricultural  societies  for  the 
sale  of  seeds  and  manures,  29  dairy  societies,  39  cattle-breeding 
societies,  25  machinery  societies,  4  wine  societies,  4  building 
societies  and  19  home-industry  societies.  The  union  had  three 
local  federations.  This  is,  however,  an  overestimate  of  the 
strength  of  the  union,  as  over  100  of  the  societies  on  the  list  of 
membership  are  in  territory  which  has  been  given  to  Italy  and 
therefore  presumably  will  not  be  able  to  remain  members  of  the 
union.  There  are  about  375  societies  inside  Jugoslav  territory. 
Cooperation  among  Slovenes  is  more  varied  in  its  nature  than 
among  the  Croats,  partly  because  the  Slovenes,  being  under  Aus- 
trian rule,  had  more  opportunities  for  development.  The  stand- 
ard of  education  and  general  civilization  is  slightly  higher  in 
Slovenia  than  in  Croatia,  though  Croatia  will  probably  develop 
rapidly  now  that  it  is  free,  and,  further,  Slovene  cooperators  do 
not  approve  of  having  a  single  society  which  does  credit,  trading, 
dairying,  and  so  on. 

On  the  whole,  the  societies  in  the  Slovene  union  did  not  suffer 
much  during  the  War;  the  type  of  society  which  suffered  most 
was  the  dairy  society,  as  50  per  cent  of  the  cattle  were  requisi- 
tioned for  military  purposes.  There  was  also  a  shortage  of  food- 
stuffs and  labor.  The  three  combined  have  had  the  result  of 
causing  a  great  scarcity  of  milk,  and  as  the  price  of  milk  rose, 
butter-making  ceased.  There  are  plenty  of  calves,  however,  and 
Slovene  cooperators  expect  to  have  their  dairy  societies  at  work 
again  by  1922.     The  table  on  page  3 1  shows  the  general  position 


30  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

of  the  union  since  1900,  from  which  its  general  position  before, 
during,  and  after  the  War  may  be  gathered. 

This  union  does  not  seem  to  have  suffered  from  political  perse- 
cutions during  the  War,  as  did  the  unions  at  Zagreb.  In  1920 
it  was  spending  rapidly  and  had  taken  part  in  setting  up  a  factory 
for  making  agricultural  machinery,  which  was  built  in  a  barracks 
which  had  constituted  the  headquarters  of  Bavarian  troops  dur- 
ing the  War.  The  union  owns  35  per  cent  of  the  capital  of  the 
factory,  it  has  a  fair-sized  wholesale  store,  and  it  takes  both  grain 
and  produce  from  the  members  and  sells  them  necessaries  of 
life,  such  as  agricultural  machinery,  foodstuffs  and  cloth.  This 
union  is  not  wholly  agricultural,  as  there  is  a  workers-consumers 
society  in  Ljubljana  with  12,000  members. 

The  second  union  at  Ljubljana  is  the  Zveza  Slovenskih 
Zadruga,  which  is  an  anti-clerical  body  run  by  national  democrats. 
This  body  claimed  to  be  more  patriotically  Jugoslav  than  the 
Zadruga  Zveza,  and  maintained  that  the  clerical  party  agreed  to 
support  Austria  until  it  saw  that  the  Austrian  Empire  was  certain 
to  break  up.  Whatever  may  be  the  merits  and  demerits  of  the 
representative  unions  politically,  the  democratic  union  which  was 
founded  in  1907  was  much  smaller  than  the  other  unions.  It 
was  not  so  easy  to  obtain  figures,  as  the  director  was  away  and  the 
books  not  available.  The  last  published  figures  were  for  1918, 
which  showed  117  societies,  of  which  70  were  credit  societies,  7 
dairy  societies,  20  consumers  societies,  3  wine  societies,  10  home- 
industry  societies,  2  building  societies,  and  5  miscellaneous  socie- 
ties. Of  these,  44  are  now  in  Italian  territory.  The  societies 
are  chiefly  formed  of  town  workers;  there  arc  only  9  definitely 
agricultural  societies,  though  the  credit  societies  include  some 
peasant  members.  The  majority  of  the  societies  are  small  and 
include  various  forms  of  activity.  In  Ljubljana  itself  there  are 
8  societies  belonging  to  the  union,  which  are :  ( I )  a  porters 
society,  with  33  members;  (2)  a  consumers  society  for  employes, 
with  nearly  1,000  members;  (3)  an  ordinary  consumers  society; 
(4)  a  poultry  society;  (5)  a  sort  of  a  club  for  propaganda  and 
literature,  which  is  only  registered  as  a  cooperative  society  to 
avoid  legal  difficulties;  (6)  a  printers  productive  society;  (7)  a 


SLOVENIA 


31 


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32 


THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 


schoolmasters  society  for  getting  theses,  etc.,  printed;  and  (8)  a 
bootmakers  society  for  purchasing  leather. 

The  democratic  union  was  regarded  with  suspicion  by  the  Aus- 
trian authorities  during  the  War,  and,  as  the  societies  were  all 
formed,  like  the  societies  in  Croatia,  with  the  object  of  opposing 
the  Austrian  Government  as  well  as  performing  their  economic 
functions,  this  is  not  surprising.  The  Austrian  Government  en- 
deavored to  centralize  all  cooperation  at  Vienna,  and  administer 
the  cooperative  societies  throughout  Austria  and  her  dependen- 
cies from  there. 

The  following  figures  show  the  development  of  the  union : 


Year 


No.  of  societies 


Shares  held 
(10  crowns  each) 


Total  credit  and 
other  dealings 


1909- 
191 1_ 
1913_ 
1914- 
1915- 
1916l- 


44 

160 
136 
126 
123 
118 
117 
117 


8,039 
8,906 
8,426 
8,091 
7,576 
7,565 
7,141 
7,050 


Croums 

22,224,640 

5,831,536 

15,399,924 

4,664,568 

5,030,253 

7,857,774 

10,826,719 

17,093,338 


There  is  a  third  union  at  Ljubljana,  which  is  non-agricultural 
and  is  socialistic  in  tendency;  it  is  called  Pravila  Nakupovalne 
Zadruga.  This  union  has  consumers  societies  all  over  Slovenia. 
The  societies  all  consist  of  members  of  the  People's  Party  of  Slo- 
venia or  of  the  Jugoslav  Socialist  Party.  The  total  membership 
is  220,000,  of  which  150,000  are  active  members.  The  societies 
sell  all  kinds  of  goods.  Within  the  first  five  months  of  1920 
it  had  sold  goods  to  the  value  of  a  hundred  million  crowns;  it 
had  proposed  to  set  up  a  mill  and  bacon  factory.  Although  com- 
posed of  members  of  socialist  tendencies  the  society  does  not  take 
part  in  politics,  and  a  curious  feature  of  it  is  that  the  owners  of 
big  works  who  set  up  shops  for  supplying  their  workers  are  able 
to  become  members  of  this  union.  The  union  has  13  centrals 
which  are  divided  up  into  about  80  consumers  societies.  The 
members  are  nearly  all  workers  in  factories,  and  very  few  peas- 


DALMATIA  33 

ants  belong  to  it.  It  can  not  be  regarded  as  purely  cooperative, 
since  a  number  of  the  societies  seem  to  be  practically  the  property 
of  the  owners  of  big  factories.  This  union  was  founded  in  1919, 
so  that  all  the  information  obtained  about  it  was  tentative,  and  it 
is  difficult  to  come  to  any  definite  conclusion  as  to  its  functions  or 
prospects. 

Dalmatia 

The  Dalmatian  Coast  has  two  cooperative  unions,  one  at  Split 
(Spalato)  and  the  other  at  Dubrovniku  (Ragusa).  The  lat- 
ter was  the  smaller  of  the  two,  and  in  1914  it  had  a  total  of  only 
58  societies,  of  which  51  were  credit  societies,  2  machinery,  3 
fishing  and  2  subunions.  The  first  union  is  considerably  bigger, 
with  a  total  of  296  societies  in  1914,  which  had  fallen  to  256  by 
1920,  and  of  these  122  were  in  territory  occupied  by  the  Italians. 
However,  by  the  Treaty  of  Rapallo  the  greater  part  of  this  ter- 
ritory was  handed  over  to  Jugoslavia.  Of  the  256  societies,  182 
were  credit,  29  consumers,  14  fishing,  11  oil-making,  1  beekeep- 
ing, 2  wine,  1  mill,  1  assurance,  2  publishing,  1  shipbuilding,  2  per- 
fume, 3  stonecutters,  and  7  miscellaneous,  which  include  2  for 
owning  ships.  It  was  difficult  to  get  any  accurate  information 
about  the  societies  in  this  union,  as  communication  was  exceed- 
ingly difficult  in  Dalmatia  in  1920.  The  accounts  of  the  union 
were  also  not  to  be  had.^ 

The  usual  change  in  credit  societies  from  lending  more  than 
was  deposited  with  them  to  having  larger  deposits  than  loans 
was  noticeable  in  Dalmatia  also.  A  description  of  three  typical 
societies  at  Bol  in  the  Island  of  Bracu  will  serve  to  show  some- 
thing of  cooperation  on  the  Dalmatian  Coast. 

The  first  of  these  was  a  credit  society  which  was  founded  in 
1911.  All  information  before  and  during  the  War  has  been  lost, 
but  the  secretary  said  that  before  the  War  the  society  had  been 

*  Split  was  the  only  place  in  Jugoslavia  where  I  found  any  difficulty  in  obtaining 
information.  A  state  of  extreme  political  tension  as  between  Jugoslavs  and 
Italians  existed ;  the  former  state  that  were  it  not  for  the  presence  of  American  war- 
ships in  the  harbor  they  would  be  completely  at  the  mercy  of  the  latter.  In  the 
islands  off  the  coast  political  tension  was,  if  anything,  greater,  and  the  old  saying, 
"Austrian  rule  is  European,  Hungarian  rule  is  Asiatic,"  is  completed  by  the 
phrase  "Italian  rule  is  Hottentot."  To  an  Irishman  visiting  the  country,  the  ac- 
counts of  Italian  atrocities  did  not  sound  very  bad. 


54 


THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 


bigger  than  in  1919,  when  it  had  120  members.  The  demand  for 
loans  had  fallen  off  considerably,  so  that  only  80,000  crowns  were 
lent  during  that  year,  while  deposits  reached  600,000  crowns. 
The  society  had  only  about  50  members  at  its  inception.  It  has 
undertaken  a  certain  amount  of  store  business — selling  food- 
stuffs— since  the  War,  and  may  gradually  develop  into  a  store 
society.  This,  the  reader  will  have  noticed,  tends  to  be  a  com- 
mon feature  among  all  the  credit  societies  of  Jugoslavia. 

The  fishing  society,  which  has  44  members,  includes  nearly  all 
the  fishermen  in  Bol.  The  fishing  is  for  sardines  and  mackerel. 
The  former  are  caught  at  night;  they  are  attracted  to  the  boats 
by  big  acetylene  lamps  and  then  caught  in  nets.  The  boats  are 
all  small  and  are  manned  by  three  or  four  men,  one  of  whom  is  a 
skipper.  If  the  fishermen  are  in  need  of  money  they  can  get  pay- 
ments on  account  of  fish  brought  in,  and  the  balance  is  paid  to  them 
at  the  end  of  the  season.  The  mackerel  are  salted  and  exported 
to  the  United  States.  The  following  figures  show  the  progress 
made  by  the  society : 


Year 

No.  of 
members 

Share 
capital 

Turnover 

Profits 

IQn 

33 
32 
44 

Crowns 
3,280 
3,780 
4,060 

Crowns 

Crowns 
2,939 

191^ 

445,636 

3,816 

IQIO 

63,336 

The  wine  society,  which  is  the  biggest  on  the  Island,  was 
founded  in  1903.  The  Island  is  partly  farmed  by  large  owners 
and  partly  by  small  tenants  who  hold  on  the  Mezzadria  system. 
The  land  question  on  the  Island  is  acute,  and,  as  a  result  of  a  land 
campaign,  the  proportion  of  products  taken  by  the  landowners 
from  the  tenants  has  been  reduced.  The  members  of  the  wine 
society  are  chiefly  big  landowners,  as  the  small  tenants  distrusted 
the  society  and  would  not  join.  This  distrust  was  largely  created 
by  the  local  wine  buyers.  This  society,  which  had  started  with  a 
membership  of  53,  had  risen  to  91  in  1908,  in  which  year  there 
was  a  very  serious  crisis  in  the  wine  trade.     This  crisis  was  fol- 


BOSNIA  AND  HERZEGOVINA  35 

lowed  by  the  War,  so  that  by  1915-16  membership  had  fallen 
to  44;  by  1920  it  had  risen  again  to  53.  The  share  capital  at  the 
founding  of  the  society  was  only  15,700  crowns;  in  1916  it 
increased  to  16,000;  the  reserves  which  had  reached  13,000  in 
1904  had  entirely  disappeared  by  1914.  In  1915  the  society 
began  to  revive  in  spite  of  the  War.  In  that  year  the  reserves 
rose  to  17,200  crowns;  by  1916  they  had  risen  to  50,000;  by  1917, 
to  300,000,  and  by  1919  they  had  over  half  a  million.  But  this 
latter  figure  should  be  divided  by  10  if  it  is  to  be  compared  with 
prewar  figures.  Share  capital  in  1919  was  26,500.  A  new  crisis 
rose  in  1919,  as  phylloxera  attacked  the  grapes.  American  vines 
have  been  introduced  to  meet  this.  The  society  pays  a  portion 
of  the  price  of  the  grapes  to  the  members  as  soon  as  they  are  de- 
livered and  the  balance  if  the  wine  is  sold.  The  society  always 
supplied  sprays  and  spraying  machines  to  members,  but  during  the 
War  it  also  took  to  supplying  grain,  fats,  oil  and  sugar,  and  it 
continued  to  deal  in  these  articles.  There  was  a  very  great  de- 
mand for  wine  during  the  War,  as  a  result  of  which  the  stocks  of 
the  society  were  depleted.  The  wine  made  from  the  American 
grape  is  not  liked  as  much  as  wine  from  the  native  grape.  This 
may  be  to  some  extent  because  the  American  grape  is  new,  and 
they  have  not  yet  found  the  best  means  of  treating  and  blending 
wine  made  therefrom.  The  amount  of  wine  made  rose  from 
985  hectoliters  in  1903  to  2,840  in  1913.  This  high  production 
was  maintained  until  1916,  but  in  1918  it  had  fallen  to  1467,  and 
phylloxera  in  1919  reduced  it  further  to  537 — the  lowest  figure 
since  the  society  was  founded. 

Bosnia  and  Herzegovina 

Montenegro  was  difficult  of  access  in  1920,  nor  was  there- 
sufficient  indication  of  there  being  organized  cooperation  there  to 
justify  a  visit,  but  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  have  an  active  and 
extended  cooperative  movement  among  the  Christian  inhabitants. 
The  general  problems  in  these  two  provinces,  which  formed  one 
administrative  whole,  are,  owing  to  historical  causes,  somewhat 
different  from  those  in  the  rest  of  Jugoslavia.  These  provinces 
were  under  Turkish  rule  until  1878,  when  they  were  handed  over 


36      THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

to  the  Austro-Hungarian  Government  for  administration,  and 
were  finally  annexed  by  Austria-Hungary  in  1908.  The  popula- 
tion is  90  per  cent  agricultural,  and  the  only  big  town  is  Sarajevo, 
with  from  50,000  to  60,000  population.  Under  Turkish  rule 
there  was  considerable  oppression,  which  was  carried  on  on  lines 
similar  to  the  Penal  Code  in  Ireland.  Any  Christian  becoming 
a  Mohammedan  was  entitled  to  hold  land,  but  Christians  who 
stood  by  their  religion  were  reduced  to  the  position  of  serfs.  As 
a  result  of  this  a  large  number  of  the  Christian  Croats  and  Serbs 
embraced  Mohammedanism,  so  that  in  1912  out  of  a  population 
of  1,962,200,  626,649  were  Mohammedans,  almost  entirely 
descendants  of  renegade  Christians,  as  the  number  of  actual 
Turks  in  the  country  was  very  small.  As  is  natural,  the  rene- 
gades were  detested  by  the  Christians,  but  up  to  the  War  all  the 
land  belonged  to  them,  and  up  to  the  annexation  by  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Government  the  Christian  peasants  were  literally 
serfs.  It  is  certain  that  the  Mohammedans  will  be  deprived  of 
nearly  all  their  land,  and  the  burning  question  in  1920  was 
whether  they  should  get  compensation  or  not.  If  the  matter 
were  left  in  the  hands  of  the  local  government  of  the  provinces 
there  is  very  little  likelihood  that  the  Mohammedans  would  re- 
ceive any  compensation,  but  the  government  at  Belgrade  may  be 
unwilling  to  create  a  precedent  of  this  nature.  Of  the  Chris- 
tians, about  two  thirds  are  Serbian  Orthodox  and  one  third 
Roman  Catholic.  There  is  no  cooperative  movement  among  the 
Mohammedans,  who  are  chiefly  traders  when  they  are  not  land- 
owners, who  may  cultivate  a  small  portion  of  their  land  and  sub- 
let the  rest.  There  are  some  signs  of  the  Mohammedans  form- 
ing cooperative  societies,  but  there  is  little  or  no  chance  of  their 
being  admitted  to  Christian  societies  for  some  time  to  come.  If 
they  are  reduced  to  poverty  they  will  probably  be  driven  to  some 
form  of  cooperation.  As  in  Croatia,  each  of  the  Christian 
churches  has  its  own  cooperative  movement,  which  division  was 
encouraged  by  the  Austro-Hungarlan  Government  In  Bosnia  as 
elsewhere. 

The  Serbian  movement  is  the  strongest  and  oldest  of  the  two. 
By  1912  the  Serbian  movement  had  98  societies  belonging  to  it. 


BOSNIA  AND  HERZEGOVINA  37 

The  movement  is  much  controlled  by  the  priests,  but  there  is  a 
desire  to  get  the  movement  into  lay  hands,  and  for  this  reason 
efforts  are  being  made  to  train  lay  managers  or  secretaries.  Of 
the  98  societies  in  1912,  only  75  furnished  returns,  which  showed 
2,553  members,  or  an  average  of  34  per  society. 

For  political  reasons,  as  in  Croatia,  the  Serbs  deliberately  kept 
their  societies  small,  and  regarded  90  as  the  largest  number  per- 
missible in  one  society.  Of  the  2,553  members,  2,409  were  farm- 
ers and  the  remainder  small  shopkeepers  who  usually  also  have 
small  farms,  priests,  teachers,  artisans  and  government  employes. 
The  capital  of  the  society  was  31,226  crowns,  and  the  loans  made 
485,434.  Below  is  a  rough  balance  sheet  for  the  year  1912  and 
a  list  of  purposes  for  which  loans  were  made,  which  gives  a  gen- 
eral idea  of  the  nature  of  their  activities.  By  January,  1914,  the 
number  of  societies  had  risen  to  106  and  the  members  to  3,295. 
On  the  outbreak  of  war  the  Austro-Hungarian  Government  prac- 
tically suppressed  the  Serbian  union  at  Sarajevo  and  practically 
liquidated  it.  But  the  societies  continued  to  work,  though  in  a 
somewhat  restricted  way,  and  membership  fell,  so  that  by  Decem- 
ber, 1919,  when  it  was  possible  to  begin  work  again,  there  were 
only  2,958  members.  In  1919  there  was  a  great  revival;  the 
union  was  put  on  its  feet  again,  and  about  150  new  societies 
formed,  but  the  dislocation  caused  by  the  closing  down  and  the 
difficulties  of  communication,  etc.,  owing  to  dislocated  railway 
service  and  general  disorganization,  made  it  difficult  to  get  full 
information  about  the  work  in  progress. 

In  1912  the  capital  of  the  societies  was  31,226  crowns,  and  the 
loans  made  by  societies  to  their  members  458,434  crowns,  for 
the  following  purposes : 

Croiuns 

Purchase   of  cattle 79,478 

Purchase  of  land 90,679 

Machinery  and  implements 17,239 

Rent  of   land 4,086 

Buildings    38,306 

Cultivation  of  land 5,584 

Sulphate  of  copper 933 

Food  and  seeds 74,463 

Cattle  food 9,248 

Payment  of  debts 56,152 

Taxes  9,609 

Medical  service  and  medicine 170 


3% 


THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 


The  position  of  the  societies  as  a  whole  on  December  31,  1912, 
was  as  follows :  * 


Debit 

Owing  to  the  UiUoo  and  other 

bank*  

Depoeitt  of  members 

Share*  _ ,  ,- 


Rewrre 
Balance 


Total 


Crewai 

S96,497 

111.417 

S  1.778 

9.840 

5,844 


Credit 

Cr0vms 

Cath  in  hand 31,226 

Loan*  (at  above) 458,434 

Grain  held  by  todetiet 10,146 

Stocks  in  hand 6,825 

Establishment    charge*    (repay- 

able  in  5  years) „ 2,448 

Real    property „ 20,380 

Implements    -      5,915 

Shares  held   by  sodetie*  in  the 

Union    20,000 


555,376 


Total  555,374 

During  the  year  1912  the  income  and  expenditures  of  the  socie- 
ties were  as  follows : 


Income 

Crovms 

Shares 33,923 

Reserve    9,840 

Borrowed  from  Union  and  bank*  516,952 

Deposits   183,747 

Loans  repaid 205,937 

Equipment 328 

Establishment    expense* 6,629 

Interest  on  loans 41,782 

Real   property „ 4,287 

Agricultural    implements 5,147 

Shares  in  Union „ 

Interest  on  share  capital 

Cash  in  hand „ 6,510 

Rent,   etc 26,126 


Expenditures 

Shares  

Repaid  on  loans  from  Union 

banks  

Deposits   withdrawn 

Loans  made. 

Equipment    

Establishment  expenses  „. 

Interest    on    loans 

Real   property 

Agricultural    implements. 
Shares  in  Union 


and 


Cash  in  hand 

Rent  „.... 


Crovms 
2,145 

120,454 

72,329 

664,372 

7,154 

9,078 

23,789 

24,668 

11,062 

20,000 

4,927 

13,732 

31,226 

36,272 


Total 1,041,208  Total 1,041,208 

On  December  31,  1918,  the  position  of  the  societies,  which 
numbered  106,  was  as  follows: 


Debit 

Share    capital. 

Due  to  Union  and  bankt„ 

Deposits  of  members 

Savings     (withdrawable 

5  years) 

Reserve  ,,  

Balance 


Credit 

Crov;ni  Crowns 

30,602      Cash  in  hand 90,568 

278,430      Loans  to  members 478,120 

251,040      Bonds   and   scrip 33,631 

after                    Deposits  in  Union  and  bank* 71,547 

76,446      Grain    1,054 

28,289      Fittings,    etc 11,732 

34,445      Establishment  expenses 419 

Real   property - „  10,056 

Agricultural    implements 2,123 


Tout 


699,252         Total 


699,250 


'The  apparent  inaccuracy  of  addition  is  due  to  the  fact  that  hellers  have  been 
omitted  in  all  the  following  tables. 


BOSNIA  AND  HERZEGOVINA  39 

The  position  of  the  Union  in  1913  was  as  follows: 

Debit  Credit 

■  Croivns  Crowns 

Share  capital 30,900      Cash  in  hand 459 

Creditors'  current  account 371,475  Cash  on  current  account  in  bank  401,676 

Owing  to  Central  Bank 468,000      Security    468,000 

Reserve  1,545      Printing  works 5,884 

Balance    5,275      Fittings  1,175 


Total  877,195  Total  877,194 

The  position  of  the  Union  in  1919  was  as  follows : 

Debit  Credit 

Crowns  Croivns 

Share  capital 35,300      Cash  in  hand 23,135 

Creditors    221,359      Loans    439,762 

Owing  to  bank 659,100      Securities    468,000 

Reserve  203,276      Goods   8,100 

Balance  11,060      Sundries" 


Total 1,130,195  Total 1,130,195 

"  This  item  could  not  be  verified  and  has  therefore  been  left  blank. 

Up  to  May  29,  1920,  the  dealings  of  the  Union  were  as  fol- 
lows: 

Debit  Credit 

Croivns  Croivns 

Share    capital 35,200      Cash  in  hand 790,832 

Creditors  1,683,722       Loans    205,370 

Owing  to  bank   (security  de-                         Bonds  and  scrip 20,000 

posits)  663,956      Securities  663,950 

Reserve  203,186      Goods    1,156,688 

Balance    254,291      Agricultural    inaplements 3,510 


Total  2,840,357  Total 2,840,357 

The  Croat  union  in  Sarajevo  really  began  its  work  in  1904, 
when  the  first  society  was  formed.  It  developed  slowly  and  by 
1908  there  were  only  5  societies.  By  1914  the  total  had  risen  to 
64,  all  of  which  were  Raiffeisen  credit  societies,  but  which  did  a 
general  business  in  buying  and  selling.  Their  union  began  with 
the  cooperative  bank,  which  was  founded  in  1910  with  a  capital 
of  2,000,000  crowns,  but  this  was  found  to  be  too  small  to  be  of 
much  use,  and  in  1915  they  started  doing  their  financial  work 
through  the  Croat  Agricultural  Bank  at  Zagreb.  The  number 
of  societies  remained  unaltered  during  the  War.  The  total  mem- 
bership reached  9,391.  The  Croats  did  not  make  particular 
efforts  to  keep  their  societies  small;  they  varied  in  size  from  14 


40  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

members  to  746,  which  was  the  largest.  In  November,  1919, 
they  decided  to  form  a  regular  union  of  Croat  cooperative  socie- 
ties in  Bosnia,  and  by  June,  1920,  great  strides  had  been  made — 
a  new  union  with  86  societies  and  1,500  members  was  formed. 
It  was  not  possible  to  procure  figures  for  the  War  years,  but  on 
December  31,  1913,  59  societies  furnished  returns,  which  showed 
a  total  of  1,789,739  crowns  lent  and  1,285,022  crowns  on  deposit. 
During  the  War  the  societies  were  very  delinquent  about  furnish- 
ing returns,  as  the  work  of  the  societies  was  practically  confined  to 
collecting  their  debts.  Deposits,  however,  were  flowing  in,  and 
by  1919  had  risen  to  about  5,000,000  crowns.  The  amount  out 
on  loan  was  not  ascertainable,  but  it  is  said  to  be  very  small.  The 
share  capital  reached  about  a  quarter  of  a  million.  This  is  an- 
other example  of  the  alteration  in  the  position  of  the  farmer 
caused  by  the  War. 

Both  the  Croat  and  the  Serbian  unions  did  good  business  for 
their  members  in  selling  their  crops  cooperatively.  Before  co- 
operation was  introduced,  peasants  used  to  sell  their  crops  stand- 
ing in  the  fields  to  corn  merchants,  who  could  give  practically  any 
price  they  chose.  The  cooperative  method  is  that  each  peasant 
reports  the  quantity  of  grain  in  his  barn  to  his  society.  The 
society  watches  the  markets  and  waits  for  a  suitable  opportunity 
of  selling.  Meanwhile,  if  the  peasant  wants  money  he  can  bor- 
row it  on  the  security  of  his  grain  at  5  per  cent  and  the  society 
repays  itself  when  it  sells  the  corn.  The  unions  are  trying  to 
organize  the  grain-selling  on  a  big  scale,  but  they  find  this  dif- 
ficult, as  the  local  societies  like  selling  it  themselves,  and  are 
pleased,  just  as  some  of  the  creamery  societies  in  Ireland  are 
pleased,  if  they  can  sell  at  a  slightly  higher  price  than  their 
neighbors,  though  they  would  probably  get  better  prices  by  selling 
as  one  unit.  There  are  very  few  cooperative  stores  in  Bosnia, 
though  the  credit  societies  do  a  certain  amount  of  store  business. 

The  heads  of  the  cooperative  movement  are  anxious  to  unite 
the  Serb  and  Croat  unions.  The  chief  obstacle  is  that  both  unions 
arc  somewhat  clerical  in  nature,  and  the  priests  of  the  respective 
churches,  who  have  done  admirable  work  for  cooperation  in  Jugo- 
slavia, are  in  many  cases  secretaries  of  the  societies.     Education 


INDUSTRIAL  COOPERATIVES  IN  JUGOSLAVIA  41 

is  not  widespread,  and  there  is  difficulty  in  obtaining  trained  lay 
managers.  Although  the  fact  that  the  priests  have  a  large 
measure  of  control  in  the  two  unions  has  doubtless  had  consid- 
erable effect  in  helping  them  to  overcome  their  early  difficulties 
and  has  provided  them  with  a  stabilizing  and  educative  element 
to  guide  them,  it  is  felt  that  it  will  be  difficult  to  secure  complete 
unity  of  purpose  between  the  two  groups  until  there  is  a  larger 
lay  element  in  both  unions,  and  classes  are  being  formed  for 
training  managers.  Once  the  peasants  can  be  brought  to  see  the 
full  advantages  of  the  cooperative  system,  there  ought  to  be  a  big 
future  for  Bosnian  cooperation,  as  the  peasants  have  large  sums 
of  money  which  they  keep  in  their  houses  because  they  do  not 
yet  appreciate  the  advantages  of  banking.  As  a  result  of  this 
system  of  hoarding  money,  many  of  them  lost  large  sums  of 
money  at  the  conclusion  of  the  War,  because  on  the  conversion  of 
the  currency  from  Austrian  to  Jugoslavian  many  of  the  more  igno- 
rant peasants  failed  to  realize  the  necessity  of  getting  their  money 
stamped  with  the  Jugoslav  stamp.  The  new  national  spirit,  which 
tends  to  abolish  the  old  standing  differences  between  Serb  and 
Croat,  Roman  Catholic  and  other  Christian  bodies,  should  help 
to  strengthen  the  cooperative  movement  throughout  Bosnia  and 
to  improve  the  general  conditions  of  the  country. 

Industrial  Cooperatives  in  Jugoslavia  and  General 

Conclusions 

This  report  has  dealt  so  far  entirely  with  agricultural  coopera- 
tion, as  industrial  cooperation  in  Jugoslavia  is  a  very  small  and 
unimportant  movement.  There  are,  however,  some  signs  that 
the  cooperative  movement  in  its  industrial  distributive  form  will 
develop,  though  for  many  years  to  come  it  is  unlikely  that  it  will 
compare  in  importance  with  the  agricultural  movement.  The 
signs  of  the  existence  of  an  industrial  movement  are  chiefly  to  be 
noticed  in  Zagreb  and  Ljubljana.  In  Zagreb  there  are  two  con- 
sumers societies,  the  first  of  which  is  a  socialistic  society  founded 
in  1910.  This  society  is  run  on  what  may  be  described  as  purely 
Rochdale  lines.  It  differs  from  the  ordinary  English  consumers 
society  in  that  it  is  directly  socialistic  in  tendency,  and  it  regards 


42 


THE  CXX)PERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 


the  agricultural  societies  as  purely  capitalistic  bodies,  and  their 
movement  as  part  of  the  "junker  politik."  The  society  aims  at 
controlling  production,  but,  so  far,  has  succeeded  only  in  estab- 
lishing a  small  boot  factory  which  employs  about  30  workers. 
This  factory  was  opened  about  the  beginning  of  1920.  The 
society  has  30  branches,  some  of  which  are  in  country  districts, 
but  it  does  no  agricultural  business.  It  has  a  considerable  con- 
nection with  the  trade-unions  of  Croatia,  though  it  is  not  officially 
united  with  them,  but  the  leaders  of  the  trade-unions  take  an 
interest  in  the  society  and  in  some  cases  the  trade-union  leaders 
are  members  of  the  committee  of  the  cooperative  society.  The 
society  had  only  160  members  before  the  War  and  by  1916  this 
number  had  fallen  to  64.  In  1917  the  society  began  to  make 
progress,  which  was  probably  due  to  the  pressure  of  the  War, 
which  made  combination  to  buy  cheaply  more  important  than  in 
prewar  days.  In  1917  it  had  763  members,  and  in  1918,  3,219, 
in  1919  it  rose  rapidly  to  12,957,  and  in  1920  it  had  about  16,000 
members.  The  share  capital,  which  in  1911  was  4,300  crowns, 
had  fallen  to  2,400  in  1916,  and  by  1919  had  risen  to  669,000. 
The  sales  and  gross  profits  for  the  period  1914  to  1919  were  as 
follows : 


Yeai 


Sales 


Gross  profits 


1914- 
1916.. 
1917_ 
I918« 
1919_ 


Crowns 

54,000 

42,000 

182,000 

976,000 

10,120,000 


Crowns 

4,900 

8,900 

29,000 

130,000 

1,308,000 


The  net  profits  were  7,738  crowns  in  1911;  then  followed  four 
years  of  loss.  In  1916  a  net  profit  of  1,418  crowns  was  made, 
and  in  1919  a  profit  of  535,000  crowns,  which,  even  allowing  for 
the  decrease  in  the  value  of  money,  meant  an  enormous  improve- 
ment. The  society  does  not  take  an  active  part  in  politics,  but 
all  its  members  are  Socialists. 

There  is  also  in  Zagreb  a  consumers  society  for  employes 
(government,  railway,  etc.).     It  was  founded  in  1919,  but  did 


CONCLUSION  43 

not  begin  work  until  February,  1920,  when  it  had  8,000  mem- 
bers. It  had  already  a  large  warehouse  for  goods  which  was 
well  stocked  and  had  bought  foodstuffs  to  the  value  of  20,000,000 
crowns.  The  shares  were  200  crowns  each.  Seven  millions 
were  lent  by  the  government.  It  is  impossible  to  give  any  details 
as  to  the  working  of  this  society,  as  it  had  only  begun  to  work. 

The  third  union  described  in  the  part  of  this  report  which 
deals  with  Slovenia,  the  Pravila  Nakupovalne  Zadruga,  may 
also  be  considered  as  to  some  extent  part  of  the  industrial  con- 
sumers movement.  There  are  traces  of  consumers  societies 
started  by  the  Socialist  parties  in  Sarajevo  and  Belgrade,  but  so 
far  they  are  not  of  importance,  though  they  may  possibly  grow. 

Conclusion 

The  cooperative  movement  in  Jugoslavia  as  a  whole,  that  is  to 
say,  the  agricultural  cooperative  movement,  is  changed  from  a 
movement  whose  chief  object  was  to  preserve  Slav  independence 
to  a  purely  economic  movement  for  the  uplifting  of  the  South 
Slav  race.  As  has  been  mentioned  from  time  to  time  in  this 
report,  there  are  signs  that  an  attempt  is  being  made  to  unite 
Serb  and  Croat  societies  in  the  different  centers.  Besides  this, 
there  is  a  big  movement  to  unite  the  whole  agricultural  coopera- 
tive organization  of  Jugoslavia  into  one  big  union  which  is 
called  the  Union  of  Unions.  This  movement  started  in  1919, 
when  a  congress  was  held  at  which  it  was  decided  that  the  Union 
of  Unions  should  be  founded.  The  second  congress  was  held  on 
June  11,  1920,  at  Zagreb,  at  which  12  unions  were  represented, 
namely,  3  at  Zagreb,  2  at  Ljubljana,  1  at  Celje,  1  at  Split,  1  at 
Dubrovnik  (Ragusa),  2  at  Sarajevo,  1  at  Osijek  and  1  at  Bel- 
grade. A  three  days'  session  was  held,  and  it  is  hoped  that  the 
Union  of  Unions  will  in  time  become  a  center  of  credit,  purchase 
and  organization  for  the  existing  unions,  but  up  to  the  present  it  is 
only  a  body  with  advisory  and  moral  powers.  There  seems  to  be 
considerable  enthusiasm  for  the  Union  of  Unions  and  there  is 
every  prospect  that  it  will  become  a  very  powerful  body  for  the 
advancement  of  cooperation  in  Jugoslavia.  The  details  of  the 
organization  remain  to  be  worked  out,  but  where  the  desire  is 
strong  the  achievement  can  not  be  long  delayed.     A  stranger  vis- 


44  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  JUGOSLAVIA 

iting  Jugoslavia  can  not  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  strong 
national  feeling  which  the  new  state  has  called  into  life.  This 
manifests  itself  also  in  the  cooperative  movement,  and  the  Union 
of  Unions  must  be  regarded  as  one  of  its  results.  At  present,  its 
headquarters  are  in  Belgrade,  and  its  secretary.  Dr.  Prohaska,  an 
authority  on  land  reform  in  Jugoslavia,  was  most  kind  and  helpful 
to  the  author.  It  is  impossible  to  say  more  about  the  Union  of 
Unions  now,  but  cooperators  in  other  countries  should  keep  their 
eyes  on  it  if  they  wish  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  Jugoslav 
cooperation. 


PART  II 

THE  EFFECTS  OF  THE  WAR  ON  COOPERATION  IN 
RUMANIA 

People's  Banks,  Agricultural  Conditions  and  the  War 

The  cooperative  movement  in  Rumania  began  with  the  foun- 
dation of  the  Bancilor  Populare,  or  People's  Banks,  which  were 
first  started  in  the  year  1891.  The  causes  which  led  to  the 
movement  for  People's  Banks  were  similar  in  Rumania  to  most 
other  countries ;  the  peasants  were  absolutely  in  the  hands  of  the 
local  money-lenders  and  merchants,  and  on  occasions  even  the 
local  landlords  allowed  themselves  to  take  advantage  of  the 
ignorance  and  poverty  of  the  peasants,  and  acted  as  money- 
lenders. A  few  village  school-teachers  were  responsible  for  the 
founding  of  the  first  People's  Banks,  which  rapidly  increased  in 
number  until,  in  1896,  they  held  a  congress,  which  so  impressed 
the  governmental  and  landowning  classes  that,  partly  to  support 
a  good  movement  and  partly  to  prevent  the  People's  Banks  from 
becoming  the  center  of  a  political  party,  the  government  listened 
favorably  to  an  appeal  for  help  from  the  Banks,  which  found  it 
difficult  to  get  money  from  the  ordinary  commercial  banks.  As  a 
result,  the  Central  for  the  People's  Banks  was  founded  in  1903. 

The  People's  Banks  had  spread  very  rapidly,  and  by  1903 
there  were  no  less  than  1,027  of  them.  They  not  only  acted  as 
credit  societies,  but  also  as  agricultural  societies  for  the  sale  of 
manures,  etc.,  and  also  implement  societies.  By  degrees  separate 
societies  were  formed  for  distinct  types  of  work,  but  in  many 
cases  the  Bancilor  Populare  still  act  as  "general  purposes"  socie- 
ties, but  only  where  the  work  outside  of  credit  is  small.  In  1913 
there  were : 

No.  Members 

Credit  societies  „ 2,901  584,632 

Productive  societies  (including  machinery,  dairy,  etc.,  societies)....         23  1,601 

Societies  for  production  and  sale 211  11,597 

Agricultural    (consumers)    societies 271  12,340 

Societies  for  hiring  land  (1912) 364         

45 


46  THE  CXX)PERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  RUMANIA 

All  these  societies  were  under  the  control  and  supervision  of 
the  Central  for  the  People's  Banks,  which  was  a  department  of 
the  government,  the  directors  of  which  were  nominated  by  the 
Ministry  of  Finance  and  which  had  a  governmental  grant  of 
20,000,000  Ui,  or  £800,000.  The  Central  also  acted  as  a  cen- 
tral bank  for  the  People's  Banks,  and  had  a  staff  of  organizers 
and  supervisors  as  well  as  accountants,  etc. 

The  People's  Banks  were  originally  founded  under  the  com- 
mercial law  of  Rumania.  They  could  accept  members  from  any 
part  of  the  country,  and  the  state,  through  the  Central,  had  only 
the  right  of  inspecting  their  accounts.  In  fact  each  Bank  con- 
fined itself  to  a  small  district.  This  type  of  bank  has  gradually 
declined  in  numbers  until  in  1918  there  were  only  277.  They  are 
unlimited  in  the  amount  of  interest  they  can  charge  on  loans. 
The  constitution  of  a  People's  Bank  is  that  each  member  agrees 
to  undertake  a  certain  liability  which  may  not  be  less  than  20  or 
more  than  5,000  lei.  He  then  pays  down  10  per  cent  of  the  sum, 
and  pays  the  remainder  in  instalments  carried  over  two  years. 
The  profits  of  the  Bank  are  distributed  as  dividends  on  the  capi- 
tal, not  on  the  turnover. 

When  the  government  established  the  Central  a  second  type  of 
society  came  into  existence.  In  this  type  the  Central  has  a  direct 
voice  in  the  framing  of  the  rules,  and  fixes  a  limit  as  to  the  district 
from  which  members  may  be  drawn,  and  also  limits  the  rate  of 
interest  which  may  be  charged  for  loans,  usually  to  1  per  cent 
over  the  rate  at  which  the  Central  lends.  Many  of  the  first  type 
of  banks  submitted  themselves  to  the  control  of  the  Central, 
adopted  its  rules,  and  thus  became  of  the  second  type  of  society, 
which  in  1918  numbered  2,643. 

The  Central  is  now  engaged  in  forming  a  third  type  of  bank, 
with  unlimited  liability  and  no  paid-up  capital.  This  type  has 
so  far  only  been  established  in  villages  where  there  are  a  number 
of  peasant  proprietors,  and  in  1918  there  were  only  46  such 
banks.  They  are  not  making  much  progress  so  far,  but  the  Cen- 
tral hopes  to  encourage  them. 

The  People's  Banks,  as  already  mentioned,  do  all  kinds  of  co- 
operative work,  but  especially  selling  grain  in  common  for  their 


people's  banks  and  agricultural  conditions        47 

members.  The  chief  crops  in  Rumania  are  wheat  and  maize, 
though  there  is  also  a  quantity  of  tobacco,  sugar  beet,  oats,  etc., 
grown.  In  the  year  before  the  war  they  first  organized  the 
export  of  cereals.  The  Banks  may  act  in  two  ways.  ( 1 )  Buy 
the  grain  at  a  fixed  price  and  store  it,  and  then  sell  at  the  best 
price  they  can  get,  and  pay  the  difference  between  the  price 
at  which  they  bought  and  the  price  at  which  they  sold,  less  a 
commission,  to  the  farmers  from  whom  they  bought.  (2)  A 
more  common  way  is  for  a  Bank  to  get  its  members  to  report 
to  it  how  much  grain  they  have  for  sale.  The  Bank  then  looks 
out  for  a  market,  and  sells  the  grain,  which  is  kept  in  the 
peasant's  own  store  until  sold.  In  this  case,  if  the  peasant 
wants  ready  money  the  Bank  will  lend  to  him  on  the  security  of 
his  grain. 

The  sale  of  seeds  and  manures  to  members  is  also  an  important 
part  of  their  work,  and  further,  they  sell  such  articles  as  cloth, 
soap,  coffee,  etc.  In  both  their  buying  and  selling  operations  the 
district  federations  of  the  People's  Banks  play  an  important  part, 
as  they  act  as  local  centrals  and  wholesale  societies.  They  buy 
grain  from  the  local  banks  in  the  same  way  that  the  Banks  buy 
from  their  members,  i.  e.,  sometimes  they  store  it  themselves, 
sometimes  they  leave  the  grain  with  the  local  societies. 

The  actual  money-lending  operations  of  the  Banks  are  much 
the  same  as  in  a  Raiffeisen  Bank.  Money  is  lent  for  productive 
purposes,  which  purposes  must  be  stated  by  the  borrower.  The 
borrowing  member  is  not,  however,  necessarily  a  peasant ;  he  may 
be  a  small  artisan,  such  as  the  village  cobbler  or  smith. 

The  loans  are  not  necessarily,  as  in  a  Raiffeisen  Bank,  on  per- 
sonal or  "character"  security  only,  but  are  often  made  on  the 
security  of  a  house,  a  cow,  a  cart,  etc.  These  points  will  be 
more  clearly  illustrated  in  the  account  of  the  cooperative  societies 
at  Oltenitza,  which  comes  later  in  this  report. 

The  second  form  of  cooperative  society  which  has  grown  out 
of  the  People's  Banks  is  what  we  should  call  the  ordinary  type  of 
agricultural  cooperative  society,  such  as  societies  for  the  purchase 
of  seeds  and  manures,  for  the  selling  of  goods  in  common,  dairy 
societies  and  fishing  societies;  but  there  are  also  a  number  of 


48  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  RUMANIA 

societies  for  the  exploitation  of  forests,  which  are  organized  on  a 
different  basis  and  are  probably  peculiar  to  Rumania. 

The  third  and  most  interesting  form  of  cooperation  in  Ru- 
mania is  to  be  found  in  the  societies  for  hiring  land.  In  Rumania 
the  land  was  owned  largely  by  great  proprietors,  some  of  whom 
owned  very  large  estates.  It  was  not  unusual  for  a  proprietor  to 
let  his  land  to  a  farmer  to  work;  that  is,  to  a  capitalist  who  paid 
him  a  rent  for  the  right  to  work  his  land  and  who  supplied  all 
the  machinery,  animals,  etc.,  necessary  for  the  work  and  profit 
of  the  land.  These  farmers  were  very  rich  men,  and  in  some 
cases  took  the  farming  of  many  estates;  one  man  had  the  farming 
of  half  a  province.  In  1900  some  of  the  peasants,  who  saw  great 
profits  being  made  by  the  farmers,  thought  that  by  forming  co- 
operative societies  for  hiring  land  they  could  make  these  profits 
for  themselves,  and  accordingly  they  formed  societies.  Before 
the  War  no  less  than  605  of  these  societies  had  been  formed. 
They  were  brought  under  state  control  in  1904. 

These  societies  are,  by  their  very  nature,  limited  in  member- 
ship, as,  unlike  the  Italian  communal  farming  societies,  they  do 
not  work  the  land  in  common,  but  divide  it  among  the  members. 
A  certain  piece  of  land  is  to  be  hired — say,  1,000  hectares.  A 
number  of  peasants  come  together,  and  one  man  says,  "I  can 
work  five  hectares";  the  next  says,  "I  can  work  two  and  a  half 
hectares";  and  so  on,  depending  on  the  capacity  of  the  man,  his 
capital,  etc.  Then,  when  they  have  enough  members  to  take  up 
the  1,000  hectares,  they  refuse  to  accept  more.  The  land  is  then 
hired  on  a  lease,  usually  for  five  years,  and  the  society  is  formed 
for  the  duration  of  the  lease.  No  new  member  can  join  unless 
an  old  member  falls  out.  The  society  divides  the  land  according 
to  the  arrangement  already  arrived  at,  but  not,  as  might  be  sup- 
posed, by  giving  one  man  five  hectares  in  one  place  and  his 
neighbor  two  and  a  half,  for  the  whole  land  is  divided  into  areas, 
on  one  of  which  it  is  decided  to  plant  wheat,  on  the  next  maize, 
and  so  forth.  A  common  rotation  of  crops  is  simply  wheat  one 
year,  maize  two  years,  and  then  wheat  again.  Each  area  is  then 
divided,  and  each  man  gets  a  part  of  each  area,  in  which  he  must 


people's  banks  and  agricultural  conditions        49 

plant  the  crop  decided  upon  for  that  area.  In  this  way  it  can  be 
seen  that  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  working  in  common  of  the 
land,  especially  as  the  society  owns  or  hires  machinery.  In  prin- 
ciple a  man  may  plant  what  he  likes  on  his  plots,  but  in  practice 
he  always  plants  the  crop  assigned  to  the  particular  area  in  which 
each  plot  lies.  Each  man,  however,  cultivates  his  own  plot  as 
an  individual,  and  gets  the  product  of  his  own  plot.  The  crop  is 
all  brought  to  a  central  place  for  threshing,  etc.  Each  man 
makes  his  own  rick  and,  when  the  threshing  machine  comes,  gets 
his  own  wheat  threshed.  The  whole  arrangement  is  somewhat 
like  the  old  open  field  system  which  was  common  throughout 
Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

Since  the  War  there  has  been  a  great  change  in  the  land  system 
of  Rumania.  The  government  has  confiscated  2,000,000  hec- 
tares, which  it  is  going  to  divide  among  the  peasants.  The  land 
is  being  given  free  to  the  peasants,  and  the  owners  compensated 
by  government  paper.  As  the  bulk  of  the  population  are  farm- 
ers, the  real  compensation  will  come  out  of  taxes  paid  largely  by 
them.  It  has  further  been  enacted  that  no  individual  may  own 
more  than  500  hectares  of  land.  As  a  result  of  this  very  drastic 
law  a  great  many  societies  have  been  brought  to  an  end,  and  only 
about  160  societies  remain,  in  place  of  the  605.  This  change  has 
been  accompanied  by  a  new  form  of  society,  which,  though  not, 
properly  speaking,  cooperative,  is  interesting  as  a  sign  of  the 
influence  which  the  cooperative  tenancy  societies  had  gained. 
Since  the  state  has  taken  over  2,000,000  hectares,  it  is  obvious 
that  the  work  of  dividing  it  up  and  satisfying  individual  claims 
will  take  years  to  complete,  especially  as  the  state  is  continuing 
the  system  of  giving  each  man  several  lots.  The  land  question 
in  Rumania  is  very  urgent  and  is  the  chief  political  question  of 
the  day.  What  with  the  presence  of  the  Bolshevik  forces  on  the 
northern  frontier  and  the  example  of  Kerensky's  land  reform 
in  Bessarabia,  now  part  of  the  Rumanian  state,  it  is  felt  on  all 
sides  that  it  is  necessary,  in  the  interests  of  stable  government,  to 
satisfy  the  demands  of  the  peasants  without  delay.  Therefore, 
the  land  which  has  been  confiscated  is  handed  over  to  them  at 


50  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  RUMANIA 

once;  but  then  comes  the  matter  of  its  division.  Here  the  state 
has  adopted  the  system  of  the  cooperative  societies.  Each  group 
of  peasants  which  is  to  be  given  confiscated  land  is  compelled  to 
form  a  cooperative  society  to  divide  and  work  the  land  tempo- 
rarily until  the  state  is  able  to  make  a  permanent  division.  The 
word  "cooperative"  is  quoted  because  ( 1 )  these  societies  are 
not  voluntary  associations,  but  compulsory  ones;  (2)  they  are  not 
free  to  choose  their  own  committee  and  officers,  but  have  a  man- 
ager appointed  and  paid  by  the  state.  Even  in  the  case  of  the 
old  tenancy  societies  the  state  sometimes  has  the  power  to  inter- 
fere in  the  appointment  of  the  manager,  but  only  when  the  society 
has  borrowed  money  from  the  Central.  This  temporary  form 
of  society  does  not,  as  a  rule,  own  machinery,  etc.;  it  can  act  as  a 
selling  agent  for  the  crops,  but  seldom  does  so.  There  are  now 
over  2,000  of  these  temporary  societies,  and  the  Central  hopes 
to  turn  them  into  permanent  societies,  not  for  landholding,  since 
that  question  is,  for  the  time  being,  settled,  but  for  ordinary  agri- 
cultural productive  purposes.  It  is  likely  that  there  will  be  a  big 
development  of  cooperation  as  a  result  of  this. 

There  has  been  some  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  peasants  to 
the  formation  of  these  semi-cooperative  farming  societies,  as  the 
desire  for  ownership  is  so  strong  that  anything  which  seems  to 
put  off  the  day  of  actual  possession  is  unpopular.  There  have 
even  been  cases  where  the  peasants  were  distrustful  of  the  good 
faith  of  the  government  and  actually  approached  their  old  land- 
lords and  offered  to  buy  the  land  directly.  This  was,  of  course, 
impossible,  as  the  land  was  already  confiscated  by  the  govern- 
ment. Land  reform  in  Rumania  has  been  partly  the  result  of 
panic  legislation,  and  the  formation  of  the  temporary  cooperative 
societies  was  largely  a  means  of  getting  out  of  the  difficulties 
caused  by  passing  an  act  without  thinking  out  the  means  by  which 
it  was  to  be  put  into  force.  The  attitude  of  the  average  Ruma- 
nian toward  his  government  did  not  show  that  confidence  in  its 
integrity  and  efficiency  which  is  to  be  desired,  but  in  the  case  of  the 
land  confiscation  there  did  not  seem  to  be  anything  to  justify  this 
attitude  of  distrust.     The  landlords  are  satisfied  with  the  amount 


people's  banks  and  agricultural  conditions        51 

of  compensation  given,  but  some  of  them  would  prefer  payment 
in  some  more  solid  form  than  government  paper. 

It  has  been  stated  that  a  result  of  the  change  of  ownership  was 
a  decrease  in  the  average  produce  of  the  land,  but  time  will  prove 
this  true  or  false. 

During  the  War  the  German-Austrian  invasion  did  not  inter- 
fere much  with  the  working  of  the  societies.  The  invaders  seem 
generally  to  have  done  their  best  to  preserve  the  economic  life  of 
the  country.  Here  is  a  marked  distinction  between  the  invasion 
of  Serbia  and  the  invasion  of  Rumania,  as  in  Serbia  the  whole 
structure  of  the  cooperative  movement  was  brought  to  the  ground, 
and  when  one  of  the  societies,  such  as  the  wine  society  at  Selo- 
Banja,  was  worked  by  the  Austrians  it  meant  only  that  the  actual 
physical  machinery  was  worked  by  and  for  them,  and  not  as  a 
cooperative  society.  In  Rumania  the  societies  continued  to  work 
more  or  less  on  their  own  old  lines.  This  is  true  of  the  Austro- 
German  invasion,  but  the  Bulgars  seem  to  have  behaved  much 
worse. 

The  position  of  a  Rumanian  cooperative  society  is  admirably 
illustrated  by  an  account  of  the  farming  society  at  Oltenitza, 
which  has  been  through  all  the  possible  vicissitudes.  The  society 
was  founded  in  1911,  with  a  membership  of  152,  which,  for  the 
reasons  stated  above,  remained  unaltered  until  after  the  War. 
The  society  took  a  lease  of  1,400  hectares,  so  that  the  average 
holding  was  about  9  hectares.  Unfortunately,  the  books  for  the 
years  1911-16  were  not  available.  When  the  invasion  came, 
the  Bulgars  found  grain  to  the  value  of  980,000  lei  (at  par 
£39,200),  which  they  seized  without  compensation.  The  society 
is  now  claiming  this  as  part  of  its  war  damage.  The  Bulgars 
destroyed  all  the  books,  etc.,  which  they  could  find,  but  the  man- 
ager succeeded  in  hiding  some  of  the  ledgers,  which  the  president 
now  has  in  his  keeping.  When  the  Germans  took  over  the  town, 
things  went  better,  and  the  society  continued  to  exist  until  after 
the  War,  when  the  land  reform  began.  As  a  result  of  the  land 
reform  the  landlord  who  had  leased  the  land  to  the  society  lost  a 
great  portion  of  his  property,  and  therefore  the  society  did  too. 


SAKTA  BARBARA  COLLbun 


52  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  RUMANIA 

Now  it  has  only  about  670  hectares  of  land  and  66  members.  The 
remaining  members  have  been  formed  into  a  "temporary"  so- 
ciety.    In  1919  the  land  was  planted  as  follows:  * 

Htctartt 

Wheat 176.25 

Forage  cropa - 12.49 

Sugar  be«t 52.67 

Luceroe    , - 48. IS 

Maiac 257.15 

Barky 20.50 

Data 16.45 

Rape 4.57 

Vegetabica S3.9I 

Total - — .- ~ 672.24 

The  plot  described  for  vegetables  deserves  special  mention. 
This  is  a  bit  of  land  especially  suitable  for  the  growing  of  garden 
vegetables,  and  is  not  worked  by  the  members,  but  is  let  by  them 
in  half-hectare  plots  to  other  persons  (townsmen,  etc.).  This 
letting  brings  the  total  number  of  persons  who  are  using  the  land 
to  about  250. 

The  land  cultivated  by  the  society  lies  near  the  town.  The 
wheat  had  just  been  stacked,  and  the  different  members'  stacks 
were  waiting  for  the  threshing-machine.  The  maize  was  still 
unripe,  and  it  was  almost  impossible  to  distinguish  one  plot  from 
another,  but  a  thin  line  of  grass  and  weeds  scarcely  three  inches 
broad  marked  the  divisions. 

At  Oltenitza  there  is  a  People's  Bank,  which  was  founded  in 
1904.  The  system  on  which  the  Bank  is  worked  is  as  described 
above,  and  typical  of  most  of  the  Rumanian  banks.  Members 
agree  to  subscribe  a  certain  (variable)  sum,  to  be  paid  up  within 
two  years.  When  once  the  sum  subscribed  is  paid  up,  a  member 
can  withdraw  up  to  nine  tenths  of  the  sum,  provided  that  the 
Bank  is  in  a  position  to  pay  it;  but  the  Bank  has  a  right  to  refuse 
to  pay,  a  right  seldom  exercised.  Membership  can  be  resigned 
only  on  the  condition  that  the  member  remain  responsible,  for 
two  years  after  his  resignation,  for  all  debts  contracted  during  his 
membership. 

'They  alto  bad  a  vineyard  of  24.80  hectares.    The  rent  paid  wa*  81,400  lei  for 
the  fields  and  2,811  for  the  vineyard. 


people's  banks  and  agricultural  conditions        53 

The  loans  are  made  on  much  the  same  system  as  in  ordinary 
Raiffeisen  Banks,  except  that  loans  are  sometimes  made  on  the 
security  of  goods  and  not  only  on  personal  security.  A  member 
applying  for  a  loan  fills  up  a  form  stating  for  what  purpose  he 
wants  the  money.  From  the  Oltenitza  Bank's  books  are  taken 
the  following  two  typical  ones:  (1)  A  shoemaker  borrows  1,400 
lei  to  improve  his  workshop;  (2)  a  peasant  borrows  200  lei  to 
buy  a  cow.  The  loans  are  guaranteed  by  one  or  two  sureties,  ac- 
cording to  the  amount  of  the  loan,  the  risk,  etc.,  but  are  also  given 
on  the  security  of  goods.  In  one  case  a  man  borrowed  440  lei 
on  the  security  of  two  cows  and  a  wagon.  The  Bank  also  dis- 
counts bills.  Loans  vary  from  100  to  75,000  lei,  and  even  more; 
the  limit  is  fixed  by  the  general  meeting. 

The  Bank  is  governed  by  a  Committee  of  nine,  elected  for  three 
years;  each  year  three  members  retire,  but  are  eligible  for 
reelection.  This  gives  continuity  to  the  general  policy  of  the 
Bank,  and  at  the  same  time  makes  it  answerable  to  the  wishes  of 
the  general  meeting.  Besides  the  committee,  there  is  a  Council 
of  three  Controllers,  who  inspect  the  accounts  and  generally  keep 
a  watchful  eye  on  the  administration  of  the  Bank's  affairs.  They 
make  a  report  to  the  general  meeting  at  the  end  of  each  year. 

Besides  its  banking  business  the  Bank  acts  as  a  consumers 
society.  It  sells  seeds,  manures,  etc.,  and  also  a  few  general 
goods.  There  was  a  very  small  storeroom,  with  a  small  supply 
of  boots  and  shoes  and  some  soap  and  hosiery,  bought  from  the 
English  Cooperative  Wholesale  Society  through  the  Agricultural 
Federation  at  Bucharest. 

It  has  a  hall  for  meetings,  and  on  Sunday  nights  social  meet- 
ings are  held,  and  even  plays  are  given  there. 

When  the  Bulgars  came  they  destroyed  the  furniture  and  books 
and  burst  open  the  safe,  which  was  lying  in  the  little  inclosure  in 
front  of  the  Bank's  premises.  (The  same  premises  serve  as 
offices  for  the  Bank  and  for  the  Land  Society.) 

It  is  not  possible  to  give  an  account  of  the  affairs  of  the  Bank 
since  its  foundation,  as  the  Bulgars  destroyed  all  the  books,  but 
on  December  31,  1919,  its  accounts  were  as  follows: 


54 


THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  RUMANIA 


Givnua  BALAMct-SHur  or  thi  Pioru'a  Bank  at  Oltinitza 


Resources 


Liabilities 


Cash. 


Loans- 


Capital  io  District  Federf 

tioo 

Repayment  for  (oods  from 

Federation 

Debtors'  expenses. 

Interest  due  on  booua 

Chattels. 

Stock  in  hand 

Reserve  in  (OTernment 
funds 


Interest  on  above* 

Capital  in  the  A.  W.  S.. 

Repayable  expenses. 

Salt* 


Premises,  etc. 
Capital  in  Cent 

Flag 

Suspense. 


171,276.61 
1,484,466.20 

22,325.90 

16,640.00 
6,635. 9S 
21,535.95 
11,886.25 
19,116.85 

26,040.00 

4,500.00 

1,300.00 

4,851.45 

1,020.00 

39,172.30 

10,000.00 

3,276.50 

10.00 


1,849,835.06 


Solvent  capital 

Dividend  on  capital 

Deposits  at  interest 

In  District  Federation  Bank 

Special  fund  for  school 

Fund  for  taxes 

Interest  forward 

Flag  amortisement 

Premises  amortisement 

Chattel  amortisement. 

Provident  fund 

Reserves 

For  supervision  work  by 

Federation 

Bonuses.. „ 

Printing  of  balance-sheet .. 


Total... 


822,046.76 

63,000.00 

290,080.46 

607,936.70 

660.65 

602.95 

6,503.55 

792.75 

3,619.90 

1,050.00 

10,625.00 

35,119.99 

2,624.75 
3,300.00 
1,867.60 


1,849,835.06 


*1  /rt -9j4d.il  franc  at  par.  Rate  of  exchange,  July,  1920,  approximately  140 
Iti  to  £1. 

*  Not  paid  for  three  years. 

*  A  government  monopoly  distributed  by  the  Bank. 

From  this  it  can  be  seen  that  the  Bank  is  very  active.  Nearly 
1,500,000  let  were  out  on  loan,  which  is  a  large  sum — £60,000 
at  par;  but  the  amount  of  goods  on  hand  was  negligible.  A 
total  profit  of  87,492.35  le'i  was  made,  of  which  65,000  (8  per 
cent)  was  paid  in  interest  on  capital.  The  payment  of  varying 
dividends  on  capital  is  a  peculiar  and  unsatisfactory  feature  of 
the  Rumanian  People's  Banks. 

Oltenitza  is  the  headquarters  of  a  District  Federation  of 
People's  Banks.  It  is  one  of  the  two  Federals  in  the  depart- 
ment of  Ilfov,  which  is  a  department  2,230  square  miles  in  area, 
with  a  population  in  1912  of  681,759.  It  includes  the  City  of 
Bucharest,  with  about  340,000  inhabitants.  There  were  139 
People's  Banks  in  the  department  in  1918,  of  which  only  three 


people's  banks  and  agricultural  conditions       55 

were  in  Bucharest.  The  total  membership  of  the  139  Banks  was 
38,517,  of  which  the  three  in  Bucharest  accounted  for  902,  so 
that  the  remainder  of  the  department  had  136  Banks,^  with 
37,615  members  in  a  population  of  about  341,800,  or  over  10 
per  cent. 

The  Federal  at  Oltenitza  had  57  member  Banks  in  1919;  un- 
fortunately, the  figures  do  not  give  the  number  of  members  in  the 
57  Banks.  The  Federation  has  a  central  office  and  store  in  the 
town  of  Oltenitza.  There  was  not  a  very  large  quantity  of  goods 
in  the  store  when  I  visited  it,  but  the  grain-buying  had  not  begun. 
The  Federation  either  buys  grain  from  the  Banks  and  sells  it,  in 
which  case  any  profit  balance  is  paid  to  the  Banks,  or  it  leaves  the 
grain  in  the  Bank's  hands  until  a  suitable  opportunity  for  selling 
arises,  and  in  the  meanwhile  is  ready  to  lend  money  to  the  local 
Bank  on  the  security  of  the  grain.  In  1919  the  Federation  took 
grain  into  its  stores  to  the  value  of  3,287,467  lei,  of  which  1,260,- 
272  was  maize  and  337,878  wheat. 

The  Federation  was  founded  in  1914  by  ten  Banks,  with  a 
capital  of  78,000  lei,  of  which  one  tenth  was  paid  up.  In  1917  it 
had  30  societies,  with  a  subscribed  capital  of  134,500,  of  which 
65,792  was  paid  up;  by  December  31,  1919,  it  had  a  paid-up  cap- 
ital of  186,002.  The  amount  of  its  loans  to  local  Banks  came 
to  2,619,599;  it  had  52,560  lei  outstanding  for  loans  on  cereals 
in  1919,  and  made  a  net  profit  for  the  year  of  53,331  lei,  which 
was  divided  as  follows:  reserves,  5,303;  dividend  on  capital  (7 
per  cent),  14,716;  fund  for  state  taxes,  530  ^;  disposable  balance, 
32,782.     The  turnover  for  1920  up  to  July  17  was  4,698,773. 

As  may  be  seen,  the  Federation  made  steady  progress  in  spite 
of  the  War.  This  is  the  more  remarkable  as  the  town  was  first 
captured  by  the  Bulgarians  and  then  occupied  by  the  Austro-Ger- 
mans.  It  still  showed  some  signs  of  the  Bulgarian  bombardment. 
The  Bulgarians  seem  to  have  behaved  with  considerable  brutal- 
ity during  their  occupation.  For  instance,  the  local  Bank  had  its 
safe  rifled  and  some  of  the  books  destroyed.     On  the  other  hand, 

*  See  Annarul  Bancilor  Populare,  1918. 

*  The  state  takes  a  tax  of  1  per  cent  on  the  profits  of  cooperative  societies. 


56  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  RUMANIA 

there  was  almost  universal  testimony  to  the  orderly  behavior  of 
the  Austro-Germans,  except  on  the  actual  frontier,  where  there 
was  heavy  fighting  and  some  looting.  They  seem  to  have  done 
their  best  not  to  disturb  the  economic  life  of  the  country  unneces- 
sarily. In  the  case  of  the  Federation  at  Oltcnitza  they  requisi- 
tioned goods  to  the  value  of  68,748  lei. 

The  Federation  at  Oltenitza  is  one  of  45  local  Federations, 
with  a  total  of  2,966  Banks  and  630,738  members.  In  1913 
there  were  2,901  Banks  and  583,632  members,  so  that  there  has 
been  an  increase  in  the  War  period.  The  amount  of  paid-up  capi- 
tal has  increased  from  107,000,000  to  186,000,000  lei,  but  the 
decrease  in  the  value  of  money  makes  this  figure  illusory;  but 
while  the  amount  of  loans  has  fallen,  for  the  first  time,  from 
149,200,000  to  137,800,000,  the  amount  of  deposits  has  risen 
from  17,540,000  to  60,370,000,  and  the  reserves  from  8,970,000 
to  17,680,000,  which  is  another  illustration  of  the  fact  that  the 
farmers  of  Europe  as  a  whole  have  turned  from  a  class  wanting 
capital  into  a  class  with  capital  to  dispose  of,  though,  as  said 
elsewhere,  the  apparent  increase  in  the  farmer's  money  capital  is 
to  some  extent  balanced  by  a  decrease  in  his  real  capital  of  stock, 
etc.,  and  by  the  want  of  ordinary  commodities  and  small  luxuries 
for  him  to  buy.  Still,  the  membership  of  the  People's  Banks  by 
itself  shows  that  cooperative  credit  and  trading  has  been  most 
successfully  practised  in  Rumania.  The  total  population  of 
Rumania  in  1912  (the  last  census  year)  was  7,508,009,  and  if  of 
these  630,738  are  members  of  the  People's  Banks  we  get  a  very 
high  cooperative  average. 

The  New  National  Organizations 

The  higher  organization  of  cooperation  in  Rumania  was 
originally  concentrated  in  the  Central  for  the  People's  Banks.  It 
was  founded  as  a  government  institution  in  1903,  and  had  con- 
trol of  all  the  cooperative  societies  in  Rumania.  The  movement 
grew  very  rapidly,  and  from  1,027  societies  in  1903  it  increased  to 
2,901  credit  societies  (People's  Banks),  23  productive  societies 
(machinery  societies,  etc.),  211  agricultural  productive  and  sell- 
ing societies,  271  rural  consumers  societies,  and  364  societies  for 
hiring  land. 


THE  NEW  NATIONAL  ORGANIZATIONS  57 

The  Central,  which  had  been  given  a  grant  of  20,000,000  lei 
by  the  state,  was  originally  governed  by  a  board  nominated  by 
the  Rumanian  Ministry  of  Finance;  but  after  the  War  it  was 
found  that  the  work  increased,  and  as  the  policy  of  encouraging 
the  formation  of  cooperative  societies  on  a  large  scale  was 
adopted  to  meet  the  economic  difficulties  of  the  country,  the  Cen- 
tral was  divided  into  sections.  At  the  same  time  a  measure  of 
control  was  given  to  the  societies.  This  policy  has  the  approval 
of  all  who  are  interested  in  cooperation  in  Rumania,  as  they 
realize  that  up  to  this  time  it  has  been  controlled  too  much  by  the 
state.  The  heads  of  the  movement  said  that  they  thought  state 
control  was  necessary  in  the  early  days  of  the  movement,  as  the 
standard  of  education  in  Rumania  was  low  and  the  people  un- 
fitted for  control.  Those  who  disapproved  of  state  control  said 
that  the  movement  had  been  started  by  the  schoolmasters  and 
more  educated  peasants,  and  that  state  control  was  merely  an 
excuse  to  exercise  political  supervision. 

The  author  does  not  feel  competent  to  pronounce  any  opinion 
on  the  matter  beyond  saying  that,  while  state  control  is  bad  for 
any  cooperative  movement,  probably  the  state  in  Rumania,  by  its 
liberal  grants  of  money,  helped  to  spread  the  movement  among 
the  peasants,  who  were  a  much  oppressed  and  downtrodden  class. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  state,  until  very  recent  years,  had  definitely 
supported  a  very  bad  and  oppressive  land  system,  so  that  no  doubt 
it  feared  that  any  peasant  organization  might  be  dangerous. 
The  whole  question  is  changed,  now  that  the  land  system  is  being 
radically  reformed. 

There  are  five  departments,  as  follows,  which  were  set  up  on 
January  1,  1919,  though  they  are  under  a  general  supervision. 

( 1 )  The  Central  of  the  People's  Banks,  which  has  a  commit- 
tee half  elected  by  the  societies  and  half  nominated  by  the  Minis- 
try of  Finance.  Its  capital  is  about  24,000,000  lei,  half  of  which 
is  supplied  by  the  state. 

(2)  The  Central  of  the  Village  Buying  and  Selling  Societies, 
which  also  has  a  committee  half  elected  and  half  nominated. 
Half  the  capital  is  supplied  by  the  state.     This  Central  includes 


58  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  RUMANIA 

til  kinds  of  rural  societies,  except  banks,  such  as  forest  exploita- 
tion societies,  fishing  societies,  machinery  societies,  etc. 

(3)  The  Central  of  the  Cooperative  Farming  Societies,  with 
a  half  nominated  and  half  elected  committee,  and  half  the  capital 
supplied  by  the  state.  This  is  also  the  department  for  dealing 
with  the  societies  for  working  the  confiscated  land  prior  to  its  dis- 
tribution and  for  dividing  the  land. 

(4)  The  Department  of  Rural  Mortgage  Credits. 

(5)  The  Department  of  Land  Registry  and  Surveying. 
These  last  two  are  purely  state-controlled. 

Besides  these  five  divisions,  there  is  a  Central  for  Urban  Co- 
operative Societies,  both  distributive  and  productive,  which  is  a 
purely  post-war  creation.  There  was  practically  no  urban  co- 
operation before  the  War.  This  will  be  dealt  with  separately  at 
the  end  of  this  section. 

The  Central  for  the  People's  Banks  acts  as  a  central  bank  not 
only  for  the  credit  societies,  but  also  does  banking  work  for  the 
other  Centrals  (not  the  urban  Central).  It  thus  still  plays  an 
important  part  in  the  life  of  the  movement  as  a  whole,  though  its 
direct  control  has  been  withdrawn  from  the  agricultural  and  farm- 
ing societies.  It  helps  the  cooperative  movement  in  general  in 
another  way.  It  sends  delegates  to  the  general  meetings  of  the 
societies,  and  it  has  helped  greatly  in  the  spread  of  cooperative 
education.  Schools  have  been  created  and  organized  by  the  Cen- 
tral to  teach  the  theory  and  practice  of  cooperation  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  committees  and  the  employes  of  the  People's  Banks, 
and  by  July,  1920,  30  of  these  schools  had  been  established,  at 
which  about  1,000  students  have  been  taught. 

The  Central  deals  only  with  the  Old  Kingdom  of  Rumania, 
but  in  the  newly  added  areas  of  Transylvania  and  Bessarabia 
there  are  cooperative  movements  which  existed  under  the  old 
Hungarian  and  Russian  regimes.  Raiflfeisen  credit  banks  have 
been  developed  in  Bessarabia,  but  as  that  country  is  still  ( 1920) 
under  Russian  law,  and  to  some  extent  martial  law,  it  has  not  yet 
come  into  relations  with  the  Central  at  Bucharest.  The  fear  of  a 
Bolshevik  invasion  of  Bessarabia  was  still  felt.     The  societies  in 


THE  NEW  NATIONAL  ORGANIZATIONS  59 

Bessarabia  are  grouped  in  unions,  which  are  independent  of  the 
state,  and  are  grouped  in  a  Central  Union  at  Kisinan.  Accord- 
ing to  Cooperation  in  Rumania  Integrita,  published  in  1920  by 
the  Rumanian  Ministry  of  Agriculture,  the  number  of  societies 
in  Bessarabia  was:  1904,  28;  1910,  253  (245  Raiffeisen  credit) ; 
1914,  357  (349  Raiffeisen  credit);  and  1919,  1,056,  of  which 
429  were  Raiffeisen  credit,  9  unions  of  Raiffeisen  credit,  603  con- 
sumers societies  (probably  what  we  call  agricultural  societies), 
and  4  unions  of  agricultural  societies.  It  can  thus  easily  be  seen 
that  the  War  has  had  the  effect  of  stimulating  consumers  socie- 
ties. The  total  membership  is  given  at  about  600,000,  of  which 
about  120,000  were  members  of  the  consumers  societies.  The 
total  of  the  balance-sheets  was :  credit  societies  of  all  kinds,  except 
unions,  32,600,000  lei;  consumers  societies,  7,900,000  lei;  credit 
unions,  38,500,000  lei;  consumers  unions,  3,850,000  lei;  small 
credit  banks,  20,000,000  lei. 

The  Transylvanian  societies  had  no  connection  as  yet  with 
Bucharest,  and  there  was  no  information  to  be  got  about  them. 

As  regards  war  damage  suffered  by  the  cooperative  movement 
as  a  whole,  it  is  hard  to  give  any  estimate.  The  damage  suffered 
by  the  Central  for  the  People's  Banks  has,  however,  been  as- 
sessed. This,  of  course,  does  not  cover  the  losses  of  Individual 
societies.  The  Austro-German  Government  placed  two  officers 
— one  a  German  and  one  an  Austrian — In  charge  of  the  Central, 
which  continued  to  work  under  their  direction.  The  losses  are 
assessed  as  follows : 

Lei 

Subscriptions  of  cooperative  funds  to  Austro-Hungarian  war  loans 1,674,700.00 

Balance  of  confiscation  by  a  captain  of  a  district  paid  at  wrong  rate  of 

exchange  947.82 

Money  paid  by  order  of  government  to  a  Hungarian  merchant  whose 

grain  had  been  requisited  by  the  Rumanian  Government 112,356.50 

Interest  on  5,000,000  lei  taken  for  the  institution  of  a  credit  society 
{Landiairtschaftliche  Darlehnskasse),  subsequently  liquidated  by 
the  Rumanians  197.500.00 

German  requisition  orders  were  made  payable  at  the  People's  Banks, 
and  of  20,509,920  requisitioned  only  8,000,000  had  been  repaid  be- 
fore the  Germans  retired.  The  Central  paid  the  balance  to  save 
the  farmers  from  the  loss 12,509,920.80 

Total    » 14.495.425.12 


60 


THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  RUMANIA 


To  this  might  be  added  about  18,000,000  Ui  to  represent  the 
difference  between  the  requisition  price  and  the  market  price  of 
the  goods  requisitioned.  If  this  sum  be  paid  it  will  be  divided 
among  the  societies  in  proportion  to  the  amounts  requisitioned 
from  them.  The  whole  sum  claimed  by  the  Central  thus  reaches 
less  than  33,000,000  la,  which,  at  the  rate  of  140  Ui  to  £1,  would 
be  about  £235,000. 

This  is  highly  satisfactory,  as  it  shows  that  cooperation  in 
Rumania  is  in  a  very  strong  position  and  that  the  War  has  done 
nothing  to  impede  the  progress  and  development  of  the  move- 
ment. 

The  Central  for  the  Agricultural  Societies  {Centrala  Coopera- 
tixn  SdUsti  de  Productir  si  Consum)^  which  is  the  second 
branch  of  the  old  Central  for  the  People's  Banks,  had,  before 
1919,  that  is  to  say,  roughly  speaking,  before  the  War  and  the 
establishment  of  the  separate  Centrals,  783  societies,  with  37,826 
members,  and  a  subscribed  capital  of  5,516,020  lei,  of  which 
4,472,840  was  paid  up. 

The  societies  were  made  up  as  follows : 


Societies 


No.  of 
societies 


Members 


Subscribed 
capital 


Paid-up 
capital 


Supply  and  sale. 

Common  sale  of  crops. 

Bakery 

MOls 


Machinery- 
Dairy... 


Mining  (chiefly  lignite) 

Various  (wine,  fishing,  etc.). 
Exploitation  of  forests. 


TocaL 


360 
52 
23 
23 
26 
11 
15 
21 

222 


16,078 

2,500 

1,312 

1,364 

1,811 

592 

1,070 

896 

12,203 


Lei 

2,500,918 
163,780 
164,682 
220,970 
157,140 
21,980 
189,270 
127,620 

2,029,660 


Ui 
2,174,460 

45,534 
106,713 
186,450 

68,570 

14,640 

135,400 

145,440 

1,594,333 


783 


37,826 


5,516,020 


4,472,840 


During  the  year  1919  there  was  a  great  increase  In  the  number 
of  societies  and  the  number  of  members.  The  following  were 
added : 


THE  NEW  NATIONAL  ORGANIZATIONS 


61 


Societies 


No.  of 
societies 


Members 


Subscribed 
capital 


Paid-up 
capital 


Supply  and  sale. 

Common  sale  of  crops — 

Bakery.- 

Mills 

Dairy 

Mining. 

Fishing 

Various  (wine,  etc.) 

Exploitation  of  forests 

Total 


232 
3 
1 
6 
9 
1 
4 
3 

182 


13,368 

140 

28 

325 

426 

25 

163 

201 

11,197 


Lei 

5,260,540 

9,450 

26,500 

100,855 

62,440 

17,550 

74,230 

170,600 

6,353,688 


Lei 

1,589,130 

2,708 

8,450 

91,015 

11,320 

6,225 

13,300 

55,140 

1,448,383 


441 


25,873 


12,075,553 


3,225,671 


It  is  thus  obvious  that  there  has  been  a  great  impetus  given  to 
cooperation  as  a  whole  in  rural  Rumania.  It  should  be  noted 
that  the  increase  in  nominal  capital  is  nearly  three  times  the  in- 
crease in  membership,  but  that  the  increase  in  actual  capital  is 
about  equal  to  the  increase  in  membership. 

Unfortunately,  traveling  was  very  difficult  owing  to  a  shortage 
of  rolling-stock  and  fuel,  so  that  it  was  exceedingly  hard  to  see 
much  of  the  work  of  the  individual  societies. 

The  societies  for  working  the  forests  presented  unusual  fea- 
tures, and  one  at  Campulung,  about  100  miles  from  Bucharest  in 
the  Southern  Carpathians,  was  recommended  as  a  good  example. 
Mr.  Teodorescu,  one  of  the  staff  of  the  Central,  acted  as  guide, 
supplied  much  information,  and  was  kind  enough  to  furnish  many 
of  the  statistics  given  in  this  report. 

The  Germans,  during  their  occupation  of  Rumania,  did  their 
best  to  develop  it,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  war  material,  and 
employed  a  number  of  prisoners  in  building  light  railways  into 
the  forests.  When  the  Rumanians  regained  their  country  they 
made  use  of  the  German  works,  and,  in  some  cases,  as  at  Campu- 
lung, formed  new  cooperative  societies  for  working  the  forests. 
There  had  been  a  number  of  forestry  societies,  but  they  were  all 
small.     In  the  case  of  Campulung  the  Germans  had  built  a  big 


62  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  RUMANIA 

sawmill,  which  they  connected  with  the  main  line  of  railway,  and 
also  a  narrow-gauge  railway,  20  kilometers  long,  up  into  the  for- 
est. When  the  Rumanians  recovered  Campulung  they  found 
120,000  cubic  meters  of  wood  already  cut. 

The  Central  for  Agricultural  Cooperative  Societies  organized 
a  society  for  the  purchase  of  this  wood  and  for  leasing  the  rights 
in  the  railway  and  the  forest  for  a  number  of  years.  The  society 
is  divided  into  three  sections:  (1)  woodcutting;  (2)  sawmill; 
(3)  furniture-making.  The  members  are  both  working  and  non- 
working  farmers  in  the  district.  On  December  31,  1919,  there 
were  altogether  410  members,  of  whom  only  42  were  workers, 
and  of  the  remainder  242  were  farmers  and  the  rest  merchants, 
etc.  At  the  same  date  there  were  254  workers  in  the  society.  By 
July,  1920,  there  were  about  500  workers,  of  whom  about  200 
were  members.  The  members  can  subscribe  for  any  sum  from  50 
to  5,000  lei,  but  they  are  altering  the  maximum  to  20,000  lei. 
Each  member,  however,  has  only  one  vote,  so  that  the  coopera- 
tive rule  is  not  broken.  In  December,  1919,  the  capital  was 
divided  as  follows:  ^^^ 

57  members  holding  under  100  lei  each — _.. 1,920 

127  members  holding  100-500  lei  each 39,260 

55  members  holding  500-1,500  lei  each 44,700 

59  members  holding  1,500-5,000  lei  each _.. 162,500 

Total    „ 248,380 

The  balance-sheet  to  December  31,  1919,  totaled  6,400,148 
Ui,  of  which  304,680  were  capital  from  all  sources.  The  profits 
amounted  to  61,049  lei.  There  were  2,358,777  lei  borrowed  on 
current  account  from  the  Central,  and  3,150,000  were  owed  to 
the  Ministry  of  Forests  for  the  timber.  The  division  of  the 
profits  is  as  follows :  10  per  cent  to  the  committees;  10  per  cent  to 
reserve;  30  per  cent  to  capital,  with  a  maximum  of  10  per  cent 
interest;  8  per  cent  to  cultural  and  philanthropic  work;  5  per  cent 
to  war  orphans,  and  5  per  cent  to  a  fund  to  insure  against  acci- 
dents and  third-party  risks  on  the  railway.  The  actual  distribu- 
tion in  1919  was:  reserves,  6,105;  committees,  6,105;  interest 
on  capital,  19,961;  philanthropy,  831;  to  workers,  18,314. 

The  workers  get  their  share  as  workers,  not  as  members,  so 
that  the  distribution  is  equal  as  between  non-members  and  mem- 


THE  NEW  NATIONAL  ORGANIZATIONS  63 

bers.  Membership  is  open  to  women.  The  society  is  divided 
into  two  main  sections — one  at  Campulung,  which  fells  and 
draws  the  timber  and  cuts  it  into  boards;  the  other  at  Giurgiu, 
on  the  Danube,  about  100  miles  away,  where  furniture  is  made. 
There  is  a  committee  of  nine  elected  by  the  members,  and  two 
retire  each  year. 

The  average  pay  of  a  worker  is  40  lei  a  day,  and  the  cost  of  liv- 
ing said  to  be  300  lei  a  month.  This  last  is  perhaps  an  under- 
estimate, as  a  meal  at  a  second-class  restaurant  costs  12  to  15  lei. 

The  forests  are  at  the  head  of  the  light  railway,  which  is  20 
kilometers  from  Campulung.  The  actual  felling  was  some  dis- 
tance from  the  rail-head,  and  the  logs  were  floated  down  flumes 
or  slid  down  the  mountain  to  the  rail.  The  smaller  logs  were 
floated  down  the  river,  and  the  big  logs,  and  firewood  which  was 
too  small  to  collect  from  the  water,  were  taken  by  rail.  A  good 
deal  of  the  handling  of  logs  was  done  by  women,  which  seemed 
hard  work  for  them,  but  they  looked  as  if  it  agreed  with  them. 
The  actual  amount  of  forest  worked  by  the  society  in  1920  was 
600  hectares,  but  they  expect  to  get  a  further  1,500  hectares. 
The  state  makes  the  stipulation  that  the  society  must  plant  an 
area  equal  to  that  which  they  cut.  There  was  fairly  heavy  fight- 
ing in  the  mountains,  and  the  houses  on  the  way  up  to  the  forest 
showed  signs  of  damage ;  but  as  no  heavy  guns  were  used  in  this 
district,  the  damage  was  not  comparable  to  that  on  other  fronts, 
or  even  at  Praedeal,  the  frontier  station  north  of  Bucharest. 
There  was  considerable  looting  in  and  near  Campulung. 

Besides  the  Centrals  controlling  rural  societies  of  various 
kinds,  already  described,  there  is  an  agricultural  wholesale  society 
in  Bucharest,  to  which  both  the  People's  Banks  and  the  other 
forms  of  agricultural  societies  may  belong.  The  wholesale  so- 
ciety is  purely  cooperative,  though  its  accounts  are  subject  to  state 
control.  It  was  founded  in  1908  by  20  societies,  and  by  1920 
had  350  societies,  of  which  150  are  People's  Banks.  The  socie- 
ties are  scattered  all  over  Rumania,  and  one  or  two  were  coming 
in  from  the  new  territories.  However,  the  societies  in  Hun- 
garian territories  had,  as  a  rule,  limited  liability,  and  so  were 
constituted  slightly  differently  from  the  Rumanian  ones,  and  that, 


64  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  RUMANIA 

with  the  difficulties  of  the  exchange  with  crowns  and  rubles,  made 
it  difficult  for  them  to  join  the  wholesale.  It  is  possible  that  any 
societies  formed  of  Hungarians  or  Saxons  would  not  like  to  join 
a  Rumanian  wholesale.  The  couple  of  societies  that  have  al- 
ready joined  are  in  the  Banat  of  Temesvar.  The  currency  ques- 
tion was  in  course  of  settlement  by  the  withdrawal  of  crowns. 

The  capital  of  the  wholesale  is  1,000,000  lei,  and  before  the 
War  the  share  was  500  lei,  but  is  now  5,000.  The  operations  of 
the  society  were  suspended  during  the  occupation  of  Bucharest. 
The  wholesale  has  a  central  store  in  Bucharest,  where  various 
kinds  of  agricultural  needs  are  on  display  and  where  some  peasant 
products  (e.  g.,  carpets)  are  sold.  It  also  acts  as  a  purchaser 
of  grain,  but  not  cooperatively,  as  it  pays  for  the  grain  outright. 
For  the  time  being  the  purchase  of  wheat  was  prohibited,  as  the 
exports  were  controlled  by  the  state,  which  only  allowed  exports 
in  exchange  for  imports;  but  it  still  bought  maize  and  rape  seed. 
It  has  elevators  at  Braila,Constanza,  and  Galatz,  and  also  stores 
for  imported  goods.  Before  the  War  it  dealt  with  about 
5,000,000  lei  worth  of  grain,  and  if  exports  were  not  restricted 
its  turnover  in  this  direction  would  probably  have  reached  a  very 
high  figure.  The  turnover  in  1919  was  100,000,000  lei,  and  the 
society  ordered  goods  to  the  value  of  £500,000  from  the  English 
Cooperative  Wholesale  Society,  and  $10,000,000  worth  of  goods, 
principally  agricultural  machinery,  from  Canada.  The  Coopera- 
tive Wholesale  Society  goods  at  Oltenitza  came  through  the 
Rumanian  Wholesale  Society.  This  activity  on  the  part  of  the 
wholesale  is  the  more  remarkable  in  that  the  Austro-Germans 
took  all  the  goods  which  they  found  in  the  society's  stores  and  all 
work  was  suspended  for  three  years.  The  Germans  did  not  pay 
compensation  for  the  goods  taken.  When  the  wholesale  re- 
started work  it  found  that  many  of  the  societies  had  been 
destroyed,  but  they  had  all  been  revived  by  1920,  and  many  new 
ones  started.  This  information  given  by  officials  of  the  whole- 
sale is  difficult  to  reconcile  with  that  given  at  the  Centrals  for  the 
different  cooperative  societies. 

The  society  does  no  banking  business  or  take  deposits  from 
societies;  but  it  has  a  credit  with  the  Central  up  to  10,000,000 


URBAN  COOPERATION  65 

lei,  and  as  the  liability  of  the  societies  to  the  Central  and  the 
liability  of  the  members  to  the  societies  are  unlimited,  it  is  easily 
able  to  borrow  more  than  necessary.  The  wholesale  is  thinking 
of  adopting  limited  liability. 

Urban  Cooperation 

Urban  cooperation  was  practically  non-existent  in  Rumania 
before  the  War,  except  for  credit  societies.  Such  urban  societies 
as  existed  were  under  the  Central  of  the  People's  Banks.  In 
1912  the  control  was  transferred  to  a  newly  formed  Central  of 
Trades,  Credit,  and  Workers  Insurance,  and  so  passed  from  the 
control  of  the  Central  of  the  People's  Banks.  By  a  decree  law 
of  February  9,  1920,  the  Directia  Co-operatiei  Orasenesti  was 
brought  into  being  first  as  part  of  the  Ministry  of  Trade  and  In- 
dustry, and  later  of  the  Ministry  of  Labor  and  Social  Propa- 
ganda. It  is  governed  by  a  committee  of  six  representatives  of 
cooperative  societies  (3  of  consumers,  2  of  credit,  and  1  of  pro- 
ducers), with  four  representatives  of  governmental  departments 
(one  each  from  the  Ministry  of  Commerce  and  Industry,  the 
Ministry  of  Finance,  the  Ministry  of  Railways,  and  the  Director 
of  the  Institution  itself). 

The  Direction  has  an  office  for  supervising  the  rules  of  socie- 
ties and  a  service  of  accountancy;  and  it  also  helps  the  societies 
financially,  for  which  purpose  it  has  a  credit  of  10,000,000  lei 
from  the  state,  and  the  power  to  discount  societies'  bills  at  the 
national  bank  for  another  10,000,000  lei. 

The  three  kinds  of  societies  were  divided  on  March  17,  1920, 

as  follows:  Paid-up 

Societies      Members  capital 

Lei 

Credit    56  6,560  2,827,000 

Consumers    222  37,424  4,301,200 

Productive    52  1,100  553,300 

By  July  10  the  number  of  societies  had  increased  to  64  credit, 
295  consumers  and  65  producers.  The  societies  are,  as  may  be 
seen,  generally  very  small,  and  this  is  the  more  remarkable  inas- 
much as  the  societies  are  confined  to  the  few  big  towns  of 
Rumania,  and  chiefly  to  Bucharest,  which  has  no  less  than  142 


66  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  RUMANIA 

separate  consumers  societies,  9  credit  societies,  and  36  productive 
societies.  The  credit  societies  are  of  the  well-known  Schulze- 
Delitzsch  type.  The  consumers  societies  are  usually  formed  by 
small  groups  of  men  centered  around  either  a  clergyman  or  a  fac- 
tory, and  each  is  jealous  of  its  independence.  The  fissiparous 
nature  of  consumers  societies  is  emphasized  by  the  fact  that 
there  are  two  federations  which  act  as  wholesale  societies  for 
consumers  societies  in  Bucharest  alone,  and  six  others  in  Rumania. 
The  productive  societies  are  divided  as  follows:  builders,  19; 
manufacturing  (foundry,  furniture-making,  shoemaking,  etc.), 
37;  purchasing  of  raw  materials  for  members,  shoemakers,  etc., 
7;  societies  for  selling  in  common  the  manufactures  of  their 
members,  2. 

The  productive  and  credit  societies  were  developing  before 
the  War,  largely  because  the  big  trade  corporations  were  squeez- 
ing out  the  small  artisans.  The  state  recognized  the  desirability 
of  helping  the  artisans,  and  did  so  through  the  state-controlled 
cooperative  societies.  The  officials  of  the  Direction  recognize 
that  the  state  control  is,  on  the  whole,  undesirable,  but  feel  that 
the  time  has  not  yet  come  for  the  societies  to  stand  on  their  own 
feet.     The  consumers  societies  were  all  founded  since  1918. 

As  typical  of  a  consumers  society  we  may  take  one  called  the 
"Rumania,"  which  was  founded  on  July  1,  1919,  by  52  members, 
with  a  subscribed  capital  of  3,650  lei.  By  June  30,  1920,  it  had 
720  members  and  a  paid-up  capital  of  96,586  lei.  The  sales  in 
the  first  six  months  came  to  681,119  lei,  with  a  gross  profit  of 
5,517  lei.  In  the  second  six  months  the  sales  reached  975,842 
Ui;  gross  profit,  87,341  lei,  with  other  profits  (not  from  sales) 
amounting  to  19,508  lei,  and  a  net  profit- of  52,374  lei.  The 
store  was  just  like  any  small  cooperative  grocery  store  in  any 
other  country.  There  was  a  separate  butchers  department  some 
little  distance  from  the  main  store.  One  of  the  credit  societies 
has  its  office  in  the  same  building  as  the  consumers  society,  but 
they  are  not  connected  in  any  other  way. 

The  two  federations  which  act  as  wholesale  societies  in  Bucha- 
rest are  the  Unirea  and  the  Bucuresti,  the  Unirea  being  the  larger. 
It  was  established  in  June,  1919,  by  17  societies  and  a  capital  of 


URBAN  COOPERATION  (iJ 

45,915  lei.  By  June,  1920,  it  had  79  societies,  with  a  capital  of 
536,667  lei,  and  in  the  last  six  months  had  sold  goods  to  the 
value  of  7,585,331  lei,  and  had  a  stock  in  hand  worth  2,240,000 
lei.  It  had  deposited  800,000  lei  with  the  Direction,  and  had  a 
reserve  of  33,290 ;  6,788  lei  were  set  aside  for  education  and  prop- 
aganda, but  so  far  not  spent.  However,  a  paper  will  be  pub- 
lished as  soon  as  practicable.  A  pension  fund  of  13,200  lei  had 
already  been  accumulated  for  the  workers.  The  other  side  of  the 
balance-sheet  showed  2,140,000  lei  owed  to  the  Direction, 
115,500  to  the  bank,  and  170,812  deposited  by  the  societies. 
The  net  profit  came  to  149,241  lei. 

Each  society  affiliated  with  the  Unirea  has  to  pay  at  least  10  per 
cent  of  its  capital  to  the  federation,  but  this  only  totaled  82,453 
lei  on  December  31,  1919.  Each  affiliated  society  has  a  repre- 
sentative on  the  board,  which  elects  a  committee  of  five  to  carry 
on  the  business,  and  the  state  has  no  control  other  than  the  exami- 
nation of  the  accounts.  Of  course,  the  activities  of  the  Direction 
in  controlling  the  individual  societies  must  give  it  a  good  deal  of 
indirect  power  over  the  federations  besides  that  arising  from  the 
fact  that  it  lends  them  money. 

The  headquarters  of  the  Unirea  is  in  a  good  building,  with 
large  storing  accommodations,  near  the  center  of  Bucharest. 

The  Bucuresti  was  founded  in  May,  1919,  by  40  societies,  with 
a  capital  of  20,480  lei.  By  June  30,  1920,  they  had  68  affiliated 
societies  and  a  capital  of  201,628  lei.  During  the  last  six  months 
they  had  sold  goods  worth  5,102,161  lei,  and  accumulated  a  re- 
serve of  20,201  and  a  propaganda  fund  of  4,205.  It  owed  the 
Direction  1,444,000  lei  and  its  bank  421,700,  out  of  a  possible 
credit  of  2,000,000  lei.  Its  deposits  from  the  societies  came  to 
1 10,000  lei.  The  liability  is  limited  to  five  times  the  capital.  Its 
net  profit  came  to  19,921  lei. 

The  two  federations  are  absolutely  distinct,  and  do  not  work 
together  in  any  way,  except  that  the  state  has  given  a  monopoly 
of  selling  the  fish  caught  in  the  Danube  to  the  cooperative  socie- 
ties, and  the  federations  each  gave  100,000  lei  toward  financing 
the  office  for  dealing  with  this  business. 

The  productive  societies  are  all  post-war.     It  is  too  soon  to. 


68  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  RUMANIA 

tay  what  they  are  likely  to  turn  into,  but  a  description  of  one  will 
be  useful.  A  newly  formed  furniture-making  society  in  Bucha- 
rest was  interesting.  It  was  a  flourishing  little  society,  founded 
in  October,  1919.  It  started  working  on  May  15,  1920,  but  was 
hampered  for  want  of  capital,  and  it  had  to  buy  wood  from 
ordinary  timber  merchants  at  high  prices.  It  had  9  members, 
and  employed  about  30  persons,  including  the  members.  Each 
member  put  up  a  share  capital  of  5,000  lei,  and  the  Direction  gave 
them  a  credit  of  700,000  lei,  of  which  they  have  used  550,000,  or 
at  the  then  value  of  money,  about  £3,920,  which  was  hardly 
enough  to  run  the  business.  They  bought  their  premises  for 
135,000  lei,  and  spent  102,000  lei  on  putting  them  into  repair  and 
about  200,000  lei  on  machinery  and  tools.  Up  to  July  22,  1920, 
they  had  paid  67,266  lei  in  wages,  and  executed  work  worth 
130,000  lei.  The  management  rests  with  an  executive  commit- 
tee of  three,  holding  office  for  five  years,  and  elected  by  the  gen- 
eral committee  of  the  society,  but  for  obvious  reasons  the  presi- 
dent actually  signs  contracts,  etc.  It  will  be  interesting  to  see  how 
a  management  by  three  works.  As  is  usual  in  continental  co- 
operative societies,  there  are  also  censors,  or  probiviri. 

The  rule  for  the  division  of  profits  is  10  per  cent  to  reserve,  10 
per  cent  to  the  executive  committee,  8  per  cent  to  the  general 
committee,  and  3  per  cent  to  the  censors.  Capital  is  to  get  such 
interest,  not  exceeding  7  per  cent,  as  the  general  meeting  may 
vote.  The  remainder  of  the  profits  is  to  go  to  the  workers, 
whether  members  or  not,  at  the  same  rate.  There  were  12  non- 
member  workers,  but  the  rules  allow  them  to  become  members. 
The  society  was  engaged  in  making  furniture  for  the  new  Cabinet 
for  Greater  Rumania,  and  the  work  I  saw  was  really  very  fine. 
They  had  not  many  private  orders  as  yet. 

Another  productive  society — metal  workers — was  originally  a 
works  belonging  to  a  German,  and  after  the  War  the  Direction 
got  it  going  as  a  cooperative  society. 

Besides  the  official  cooperative  movement,  there  was  an  attempt 
made  some  years  ago  to  found  Socialist  productive  societies. 
They  were  a  failure,  and  their  failure  has  made  the  labor  move- 


URBAN  COOPERATION  69 

ment  somewhat  opposed  to  cooperation,  but  a  number  of  Socialist 
consumers  societies  were  in  process  of  formation  in  1920.  They 
were  not  sufficiently  far  advanced  for  any  account  of  them  to  be  of 
interest. 

To  sum  up,  the  great  characteristic  of  the  Rumanian  coopera- 
tive movement  is  that  it  is  state-controlled  and  fostered  to  a 
degree  unknown  elsewhere  in  Europe  and  comparable  only  to 
India.  This  does  not  seem  to  have  hindered,  but  rather  to  have 
helped,  the  actual  progress  of  the  movement,  and  it  was  very 
interesting  to  see  the  government  actually  organizing  societies 
such  as  the  productive  and  farming  societies,  which  in  other  coun- 
tries are  regarded  as  of  a  dangerously  socialistic  description.  It 
is  not  possible  for  me  to  judge  how  far  the  paternal  attitude  of  the 
state  has  helped  or  hindered  the  growth  of  the  cooperative  spirit. 
Looking  at  the  matter  from  an  outside  point  of  view,  it  would 
seem  likely  that  the  movement  in  Rumania  has  not  the  spontaneity 
which  should  characterize  true  cooperation,  and  that  it  must  lean 
heavily  on  the  state  institutions.  On  the  other  hand,  the  educa- 
tive work  done  by  the  Centrals  must  be  useful ;  and  I  found  that, 
though  all  those  interested  in  the  movement  desired  its  ultimate 
freedom  from  state  control,  even  the  most  advanced  thinkers  on 
cooperation  in  Rumania  agreed  that  the  backward  state  of  the 
peasantry  made  some  outside  help  and  control  necessary. 

They  are  looking  forward  to  a  new  law  to  unify  the  legislation 
on  cooperation  to  mark  a  step  forward  toward  the  goal  of  free- 
dom, but  they  would  not  like  to  see  the  control  removed  at  once, 
or  even  in  the  very  near  future. 

I  am  much  indebted  to  Mr.  G.  Mladenatz,  a  member  of  the 
staff  of  the  Direction  and  also  assistant  editor  of  the  monthly 
economic  review,  Independentsa  Economica,  in  which  several 
interesting  articles  on  the  cooperative  movement  in  Rumania  can 
be  found. 


PART  III 

THE  EFFECTS  OF  THE  WAR  ON  COOPERATION  IN 
NORTH  ITALY 

General  Organization 

Cooperation  has  developed  in  Italy  in  a  more  varied  form  than 
in  any  other  country  in  the  world.  There  is  scarcely  a  branch  of 
human  activity  which  is  not  represented  in  one  or  another  of  the 
hundred  and  one  different  types  of  cooperative  society  that  are 
to  be  found  in  Italy.  The  Italian  cooperators  build  gigantic 
palaces  and  ocean-going  ships  on  the  one  hand  and  make  orna- 
mental heads  for  walking  sticks  on  the  other.  Corn  grown  on 
cooperatively  owned,  managed  and  worked  farms  may  be  ground 
in  a  cooperative  mill,  baked  in  a  cooperative  bakery,  sold  in  a 
cooperative  store  and  eaten  in  a  cooperative  restaurant.  Yet, 
despite  these  various  activities,  there  are  few  big  cooperative 
societies  in  the  country  with  the  exception  of  a  few  well-known 
societies  such  as  the  Unione  Cooperativa  in  Milan  and  the  Unione 
Militari  in  Rome  and  such  leagues  as  the  League  of  Producers 
Societies  at  Genoa.  The  majority  of  the  distributive  societies 
are  small,  consisting  of  a  group  of  a  few  men  and  women  bound 
together  by  some  political  or  religious  tie.  The  manufacturing 
and  productive  societies,  with  a  few  exceptions,  are  small,  and  the 
farming  societies,  though  in  a  sense  large,  are  necessarily  limited 
in  their  scope  by  the  area  of  land  which  they  are  able  to  acquire. 
The  result  is  that  the  study  of  the  development  of  the  cooperative 
movement  in  Italy  is  singularly  difficult,  and  this  difficulty  is  in- 
creased by  the  fact  that  Italian  cooperation  is  divided  into  politi- 
cal, religious  and  social  sections  which  do  not  work  in  harmony 
and  which,  though  each  has  its  own  particular  federation  or  fed- 
erations, are  to  some  extent  reluctant  to  give  information  which 
might  be  useful  to  their  rivals. 

Taking  agricultural  cooperation  first,  there  are  three  large 
and  distinct  groupings.  First,  there  are  the  socialistic  farming 
societies,  which  are  termed  the  economic  wing  of  a  movement 
which  aims  at  the  ending  of  private  property  in  land  and  the  so- 

71 


72  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  NORTH  ITALY 

cialization  of  the  means  of  production.  Then,  there  are  the 
Catholic  farming  societies,  which  aim  at  the  distribution  of  prop- 
erty in  land  among  the  farming  and  agricultural  laboring  classes. 
Thirdly,  there  arc  those  cooperative  societies  which  are  formed 
by  the  larger  landowning  class  for  the  distribution  of  seeds, 
manures,  machinery,  etc.,  whiph  are  regarded  by  the  other  two 
groups  as  being  decidedly  anti-social  and  really  a  form  of  capi- 
talist society.  Besides  these,  there  are  agricultural  credit  socie- 
ties, both  Catholic  and  neutral,  and  dairy  societies  formed  of  the 
cattle-owning  farmers,  which  are  largely  neutral,  though  there  are 
such  societies  which  belong  to  the  Catholic  party  in  the  northeast 
of  the  country. 

It  can  thus  easily  be  seen  that  anything  approaching  an  ex- 
haustive study  of  agricultural  cooperation  in  Italy  after  the  War 
would  be  a  gigantic  task,  which  would  probably  take  a  year's 
investigation  and  the  results  of  which  would  occupy  several 
volumes  as  large  as  the  whole  present  work. 

Besides  these  agricultural  societies,  which  are  only  one  branch 
of  the  cooperative  movement  in  Italy,  there  are  productive  socie- 
ties belonging  to  Socialist  and  Catholic  leagues,  and  there  is  even 
a  group  of  productive  societies  separately  organized  in  a  Republi- 
can league.  The  consumers  societies  are  similarly  divided,  so 
that  any  one  Italian  town  almost  certainly  has  two,  if  not  three, 
leagues  of  consumers  societies,  besides  a  number  of  "wild"  socie- 
ties, which  do  not  owe  allegiance  to  any  federation;  two,  or  pos- 
sibly three,  leagues  of  productive  societies,  a  league  or  two  of 
credit  societies,  and  a  league  or  two  of  farming  societies,  as  well 
as  a  wholesale  society  run  by  the  larger  landowners  of  the  district 
around.  It  may  well  be  imagined  that  five  weeks'  study  of  post- 
war conditions  in  Italy  serves  rather  to  confuse  than  clarify  the 
investigator's  impressions  of  that  country.  This  report  will, 
therefore,  confine  itself  to  a  brief  outline  of  the  development  of 
the  cooperative  societies  belonging  to  the  Socialist  group  in  Milan 
and  Genoa,  a  few  scattered  facts  about  some  of  the  farming  socie- 
ties, and  a  short  account  of  the  work  of  an  interesting  group  of 
Catholic  reconstruction  societies  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  devas- 
tated villages  in  the  area  of  the  Piave. 


SOCIALIST  AND  CATHOLIC  GROUPINGS  73 

From  these  and  a  few  general  remarks  it  is  hoped  that  the 
reader  will  be  able  to  gather  something  of  the  post-war  ideals 
and  of  the  comparative  conditions  of  some  groups  of  societies 
before  and  after  the  War,  which  may  serve  to  throw  some  light  on 
some  of  the  recent  and  startling  developments  of  the  labor  situa- 
tion in  Italy.  But  even  for  this  it  is  necessary  to  have  an  idea 
of  the  grouping  of  Italian  cooperative  societies. 

Socialist  and  Catholic  Groupings 

All  Socialist  cooperative  societies  belong  to  an  organization 
known  as  the  Lega  Nazionale  delle  Cooperative,  which  has  its 
headquarters  at  Milan.  All  the  societies  belonging  to  this  league 
are  Socialist;  that  is  to  say,  all  the  members  of  the  societies  have 
to  belong  to  trade-unions  which  adhere  to  the  Socialist  Party 
in  Italy,  a  strong  political  party  with  a  large  number  of  represen- 
tatives in  the  Italian  Parliament.  Apart  from  these  restrictions 
as  to  membership,  the  societies  are  not  political  bodies;  that  is  to 
say,  they  confine  themselves  strictly  to  business  at  their  meetings. 
The  Lega  Nazionale,  however,  is  itself  a  political  body  and  is  in 
close  touch  with  the  Socialist  Party  and  with  the  Association  of 
Socialist  Trade-Unions,  so  that  acting  as  a  whole  the  movement 
is  decidedly  political.  The  Socialist  Party  adheres  to  the  Third 
International  and  generally  speaking  approves  of  the  Soviet  sys- 
tem of  government.  The  league  itself  is  divided  into  three  sec- 
tions :  ( 1 )  the  agricultural  section  with  headquarters  in  Bologna, 
(2)  the  consumers  section  with  headquarters  in  Milan,  and  (3) 
the  productive  and  labor  section  with  headquarters  in  Rome. 
Speaking  generally,  Socialist  cooperation  is  to  be  found  in  the 
north  and  northeast  of  Italy. 

These  three  groups  are  in  turn  divided  into  local  consbrzie  of 
which  there  is  usually  one  in  each  big  town  or  district,  e.  g.,  the 
productive  societies  have  each  a  consbrzio  at  Milan,  Genoa, 
Rome,  etc.,  and  are  forming  them  wherever  they  do  not  exist. 
These  local  leagues  act  as  centers  for  administration,  accountancy 
inspection,  credit  facilities,  etc.,  for  the  societies  in  their  district. 

The  Catholic  societies  are  similarly  grouped.  Their  head- 
quarters is  the  Confederazione  Cooperativa  Italiana  at  Rome, 


74  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  NORTH  ITALY 

and  the  Catholic  societies  have  also  their  local  groupings  of  pro- 
ductive societies,  consumers  societies,  agricultural  societies,  etc. 
The  Catholic  societies  are  strong  in  the  south  of  Italy  and  in  the 
northeast,  but  in  the  south  cooperation  is  not  so  fully  developed 
as  in  the  north,  and  largely  takes  the  form  of  rural  credit  societies. 
There  are,  however,  farming  and  other  societies  in  the  south. 
Catholic  cooperation  is  somewhat  later  in  date  than  Socialist  co- 
operation, but  is  making  rapid  strides.  Socialists  and  Catholics 
each  claim  to  have  a  greater  number  of  societies  and  members 
than  the  other  and  to  be  more  progressive.  It  is,  however,  dif- 
ficult for  an  outside  observer  to  form  any  estimate  as  to  the  value 
of  these  claims,  but  the  general  impression  gathered  by  the  pres- 
ent writer  was  that  the  Socialist  cooperative  societies  are  more 
developed  and  more  numerous  than  the  Catholic  ones,  at  least  as 
regards  higher  developments  of  cooperation,  but  that  Catholic 
societies  are  increasing  rapidly,  both  in  membership  and  in 
activity,  and  that  if  they  maintain  their  rate  of  progress  they 
will  soon  rival  the  Socialist.  The  statistics  of  Italian  coopera- 
tion are  not  satisfactory  and  it  is  very  difficult  to  get  figures  to 
support  or  refute  any  such  statement. 

These  two  big  groups — Catholic  and  Socialist — embrace  the 
greater  part  of  Italian  cooperation.  They  are  very  similar  in 
composition,  and  the  societies  run  by  the  two  groups  are  very 
much  alike,  as  the  Socialist  cooperative  societies  are  connected 
with  the  Socialist  Party  in  the  Italian  Parliament,  so  also  the 
Catholic  societies  are  associated  with  the  People's  Party  (Parti 
Popolare).  In  their  ultimate  the  two  bodies  are  very  different: 
The  Socialists  urge  the  communization  of  the  means  of  production 
and  the  abolition  of  private  property;  the  Catholics  base  their 
whole  social  outlook  on  the  maintenance  and  protection  of  pri- 
vate property,  demanding,  however,  its  more  just  distribution. 
In  practice  the  methods  of  the  two  are  almost  identical,  because 
the  Socialists  find  that  they  have  to  yield  to  the  lack  of  developed 
public  spirit  among  their  members,  and,  in  order  to  stimulate 
their  interest  in  the  societies,  have  to  pay  out  to  individuals,  in 
the  form  of  shares  and  bonuses,  some  of  their  profits  which  they 
would  wish  to  accumulate  in  their  social  funds.  The  Catho- 
lics find  it  equally  necessary  to  keep  large  reserve  funds,  which 


CONSUMERS  SOCIETIES 


75 


are  in  practice  much  the  same  as  the  social  funds  of  the  Socialist 
societies,  in  order  to  be  able  to  meet  the  usual  emergencies  of 
trade.  Outside  these  two  groups  there  are  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  cooperative  societies.  There  is  a  large  group  of  neutral 
credit  societies  and  several  groups  of  agricultural  societies.  There 
is  also  the  small  Republican  group  referred  to  above,  but  this  does 
not  seem  to  be  of  much  importance. 

Consumers  Societies 

The  Italian  consumers  society  is  much  the  same  as  the  con- 
sumers society  in  other  countries,  but  differs  from  the  English 
type  in  that  it  has  the  political  and  religious  flavor  already  re- 
ferred to.  Milan  is  the  Italian  town  in  which  the  consumers 
society  is  most  developed.  It  contains  the  mighty  Unione  Co- 
operativa,  the  largest  consumers  society  in  Italy,  and  one  of  the 
few  societies  which  are  non-political,  but  this  society  is  regarded 
as  very  bourgeois  by  the  Italian  working  classes,  and,  in  fact,  most 
of  its  members  belong  to  the  middle  classes.  Besides  this  big 
society,  there  are  numerous  small  societies  of  more  or  less  im- 
portance. In  1916  there  were  no  less  than  49  consumers  co- 
operative societies  in  the  city.  The  Unione  Cooperativa  had 
104  branches  and  15,000  members,  a  large  central  store  with 
every  kind  of  department,  and  it  has  started  a  garden  city  a  short 
distance  from  the  town.  The  position  of  the  Unione  Coopera- 
tiva during  and  after  the  War  is  shown  in  the  following  table : 


Year 

Members 

Capital 

Reserve 

Sales 

Profits 

1912 

14,526 
15,087 
15,127 

Lire 
6,343,000 
6,295,000 
6,357,000 

Lire 
2,732,000 
2,426,000 
3,144,000 

Lire 
11,089,700 
14,896,000 
58,482,000 

Lire 
657,000 

1916.„„ 

962,000 

1919 

1,608,000 

It  shows  that  membership  and  capital  have  remained  practically 
stationary  and  that  sales  have  increased,  though  not  very  much 
more  than  in  proportion  to  the  fall  in  the  value  of  money.  The 
collecting  of  statistics  for  the  other  48  societies  would  be  dif- 
ficult, but  the  Socialists  made  an  effort  to  consolidate  their  con- 
sumers societies  into  a  single  society  called  the  Alleanza  Coopera- 


76  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  NORTH  ITALY 

tiva  Milanese,  which  was  founded  only  in  the  beginning  of  1919, 
when  it  had  a  turnover  of  1,016,000  lire  in  the  half  year  and 
about  8,000,000  lire  in  its  first  year.  Membership  of  the  Social- 
ist society  is  confined  to  (a)  members  and  workers  of  Socialist 
cooperative  societies  existing  in  Milan  on  July  1,  1918,  (b)  mem- 
bers of  organized  trade  and  professional  unions  which  have  not 
a  confessional  character  (this  excludes  members  of  Catholic  trade- 
unions),  (c)  members  of  the  Italian  Socialist  Party,  and  (d) 
all  societies  and  institutions  of  persons  admissible  under  (a), 
(b),  and  (c).  The  object  of  the  society  is  said  to  be  to  substi- 
tute for  the  present  capitalistic  regime  "a  regime  in  which  pro- 
duction would  be  organized  for  the  consumers  collectively  and 
not  for  profit,  and  to  acquire  gradually  the  means  of  production 
and  sale  for  the  associated  consumers,  so  that  they  may  have  in 
future  the  surplus  riches  they  have  created."  Besides  these  two 
above-mentioned  cooperative  societies,  there  is  a  large  society  of 
railway  workers  and  another  of  postal  employes,  the  former  with 
6,000  members  and  the  latter  11,000.  The  former  had  a  fairly 
large  turnover  of  about  7,000,000  lire  in  1915;  the  latter  only 
about  one  tenth  of  this. 

A  very  interesting  development  has  taken  place  all  over  Italy 
by  which  the  municipal  authorities  undertake  a  considerable 
amount  of  the  work  of  supplying  the  necessities  of  life  to  their 
people.  Over  200  Italian  cities  and  towns  have  undertaken  this 
work  and  most  of  them  began  it  between  the  years  1917  and 
1919,  though  there  are  some  traces  of  it  as  early  as  1912.  The 
system  adopted  is  to  form  a  committee  consisting  of  representa- 
tives from  the  cooperative  societies  and  charitable  institutions. 
This  committee  gets  funds  from  the  municipality  and  from  the 
associated  societies,  which  it  uses  for  organizing  a  supply  of 
foodstuffs,  clothing,  etc.,  which  are  sold  either  through  the  co- 
operative societies  or  through  stores  specially  set  up  for  the 
purpose. 

The  city  of  Milan,  though  not  the  first  town  to  organize  a 
municipal  supply,  has  developed  it  more  than  any  other  town  in 
Italy.  The  Azienda  Consorziale  dei  Consumi  de  Milano  did  not 
actually  begin  work  until  September,  1918,  though  there  had  been 
a  previous  society  of  the  same  nature  but  more  limited  scope. 


CONSUMERS  SOCIETIES  11 

The  Azienda  is  constituted  of  (1)  the  Commune  of  Milan,  (2) 
consumers  cooperative  societies  with  over  500  members  in  Milan 
and  the  surrounding  district,  and  (3)  legally  constituted  benev- 
olent, provident  and  cooperative  institutions,  trade-unions,  etc. 
The  capital  on  June  30,  1919,  was  made  up  as  follows: 

Lire 

Commune  of   Milan 2,160,862 

Consumers  cooperative  societies 97,090 

Institutions  169,000 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  less  than  4  per  cent  of  the  total  capital  was 
held  by  cooperative  societies  and  more  than  90  per  cent  by  the 
municipality;  besides  this,  the  commune  advanced  5,213,052  lire 
on  current  account.  The  committee  has  six  representatives  of 
the  commune,  six  representatives  of  cooperative  societies,  two 
of  whom  represent  federations  and  one  representative  of  the 
charitable  societies;  so  the  cooperative  movement  is  representa- 
tive out  of  all  proportion  to  its  investment.  There  are  38  socie- 
ties and  69  charitable  and  other  institutions  which  belong  to  the 
Azienda.  The  following  balance-sheet  for  nine  months  gives 
some  idea  of  the  amount  of  the  municipal  trading : 

Debit 
Capital:  Lire  Lire 

Commune  of  Milan 2,160,862.25 

Consumers  cooperative  societies 97,090.00 

Institutions   169,000.00 

2,426,952.25 

Commune  of  Milan  (current  account) 5,213,062.78 

Sundry  creditors  4,820,451.57 

Secured  creditors  85,100.12 

Total    12,545,566.72 

Credit 
Capital  still  owing: 

Consumers  cooperative  societies 36,187.00 

Institutions  7,667.00 

43,854.00 

In  bank  669,135.99 

Goods  in  store  5,992.839.3 1 

Sundry  debtors  4,652,213.28 

Securities    3,250,000.00 

Materials  for  packing  64,000,000.00 

Building,  machinery,  tools,  wagons,  beasts,  furniture,  etc. 961,956.60 

Deeds  and  deposits  of  property  (of  third  parties) 85,100.12 

12,472,339.30 
Balance  loss  73,221.92 

Total    12,545,566.72 


78  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  NORTH  ITALY 

The  Azienda  itself  owns  60  depots  for  the  sale  of  its  goods  and 
supplies  155  cooperative  stores  including  branches. 

The  Azienda  supplies  all  the  principal  necessaries  of  life  to  the 
citizens  at  the  cheapest  price  possible.  During  the  nine  months 
from  October,  1918,  to  June,  1919,  it  supplied,  among  other 
things,  207,591  quintals  of  flour,  or  about  20,000  tons,  122,511 
quintals  of  rice,  20,965  quintals  of  frozen  meat,  8,477  quintals  of 
sugar  and  1,553  quintals  of  soap,  in  addition  to  such  things  as 
candles,  matches,  coffee,  tinned  meat  and  fish. 

Besides  the  mere  purchasing  of  goods,  the  Azienda  has  estab- 
lished factories  for  making  boots,  clothing,  etc.,  and  a  dairy  for 
supplying  milk  and  milk  products.  The  dairy  is  run  on  the  most 
up-to-date  hygienic  lines  and  the  factories  are  also  well  equipped, 
airy  and  well  lighted,  and  pay  good  wages.  The  goods  manu- 
factured are  sold  through  the  Azienda  and  each  has  its  price 
stamped  on  it,  in  order  to  frustrate  any  attempt  at  profiteering. 
The  government  sold  a  quantity  of  surplus  cloth  and  leather  to 
the  Azienda,  which  enables  it  to  produce  very  cheaply. 

The  development  of  municipal  trading  is  due  to  the  pressure 
of  war  conditions,  but  the  general  opinion  was  that  it  would  be- 
come a  permanent  feature  of  Italian  economic  life.  It  may  pos- 
sibly lead  to  some  form  of  national  production,  as  the  Aziendas 
of  other  towns  (e,  g.,  Bologna)  already  purchased  goods  from  the 
Milan  factories  for  their  own  citizens,  and  it  is  not  a  long  step 
from  this  to  the  establishment  of  jointly  owned  and  worked  fac- 
tories for  the  whole  country. 

The  consumers'  movement  in  Italy,  except  so  far  as  its  politi- 
cal and  divided  nature  is  interesting,  presents  no  special  fea- 
ture worthy  of  study.  The  municipal  trading  is  the  one  really 
interesting  development.  The  productive  and  labor  societies,  on 
the  other  hand,  are  intensely  interesting  and  have  developed  in  a 
very  remarkable  manner.  A  description  of  the  position  of  these 
societies  in  Milan  and  Genoa  in  1920  may  be  taken  as  giving  an 
idea  of  how  they  are  progressing,  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Genoa  is  the  most  developed  town  in  Italy,  and  Milan  the 
next,  as  regards  cooperative  manufacture. 


the  movement  in  milan  79 

Cooperative  Productive  Societies 

The  Italian  cooperative  productive  society  is  usually  formed  of 
a  group  of  workmen  who  have  accumulated  a  small  amount  of 
capital  by  weekly  savings  and  started  to  work  as  their  own  mas- 
ters. This  form  of  association  is  not  very  new  in  Italy,  as  it  has 
long  been  a  custom  of  manual  laborers,  such  as  navvies,  to  hire 
themselves  out  in  groups.  On  the  other  hand,  there  have  been 
cases  where  the  trade-unions  have  deliberately  founded  such 
societies  and  have  accumulated  funds  by  a  general  levy  on  the 
members  of  the  union. 

The  total  number  of  productive  societies  given  in  Italian  sta- 
tistics for  1915  was  3,015,  of  which  only  1,884  furnished  returns. 
These  had  over  257,000  members,  so  that  there  were  probably  be- 
tween 300,000  and  400,000  members  of  productive  societies  alto- 
gether. The  total  number  of  workers  employed  in  industries 
was  about  2,300,000,  so  that,  roughly,  one  seventh  of  the  work- 
ing population  were  members  of  cooperative  productive  societies. 
This  shows  how  widespread  the  producers'  movement  has  be- 
come. 

As  said  above,  the  societies  are  formed  into  local  federations, 
the  federations  of  Genoa  and  Milan  being  the  most  developed. 
The  following  description  of  these  two  federations  will  give  the 
reader  an  idea  of  what  to  expect  from  Italian  cooperators. 

The  Movement  in  Milan 

The  league  of  cooperative  societies  in  Milan  is  called  the 
Federazione  Milanese  delle  Cooperative  di  Produzione  e  Lavoro, 
and  has  31  societies  belonging  to  it.  These  include  building 
societies,  ironworkers,  stonecutters,  painters,  printers,  porters, 
cane  and  umbrella  makers,  furniture  makers,  navvies,  etc.  The 
three  societies  described  below  are  typical  of  well-worked  produc- 
tive societies : 

The  printing  society,  called  La  Tipografia  degli  Operai,  which 
was  founded  in  1880,  is  a  large  printing  works  in  Milan.  This 
society  is  somewhat  unusual,  as  it  was  formed  by  the  Milan  branch 


80  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  NORTH  ITALY 

of  the  printers  trade-union,  which  compelled  its  members  to  sub- 
scribe 10  centimes  a  week  until  each  of  them  held  ten  lire  shares 
in  the  society.  With  the  fund  thus  raised,  the  printing  works 
were  established,  so  that  in  ei]fect  it  is  the  property  of  the  local 
branch  of  the  trade-union.  The  control  is  vested  in  a  commit- 
tee elected  by  the  shareholders,  and  the  workers  do  not  share  in 
its  profits,  but  the  profits  are  devoted  to  benevolent  and  other 
funds  for  the  benefit  of  the  Milanese  printers  in  general.  The 
workers  are  employed  in  order  from  the  rota  of  unemployed 
printers  in  Milan.  The  society  suffered  during  the  War.  A  num- 
ber of  the  workers  were  called  to  the  colors  and  its  pay-roll  fell 
from  108,000  lire  in  1915  to  74,800  in  1916.  By  1918  it  had 
risen  to  114,000  lire,  but  the  fall  in  the  value  of  money  would 
more  than  balance  this  rise;  in  1919  it  rose  to  231,000  lire. 
There  was  a  slight  tendency  to  fall  before  Italy  entered  the  War, 
as  in  1914  the  figure  was  102,526  lire,  but  this  was  such  a  small 
fall  that  nothing  can  be  argued  from  it.  The  value  of  the  work 
done  in  the  same  years  was:  1913,  217,114  lire;  1914,  194,514 
lire;  1916,  258,674  lire,  and  1918,  546,323  lire.  This  shows  the 
immense  increase  in  the  price  of  raw  materials,  chiefly  paper,  as 
the  value  of  the  work  done  in  1916  was  over  40,000  lire  more 
than  in  1913,  though  the  pay-roll  had  fallen  by  over  25  per  cent. 

The  capital  of  the  society  in  1915  was  120,779  lire;  in  1916, 
123,387;  and  in  1918,  138,576.  This  was  the  only  society  where 
I  succeeded  in  getting  a  balance-sheet,  a  portion  of  which  is  repro- 
duced at  the  top  of  the  opposite  page. 

In  the  year  1919  the  amount  paid  in  wages  had  risen  from 
109,817  to  231,138 //W.i 

The  division  of  the  profits  is  interesting.  The  share  capital 
of  170,936  lire  was  divided  between  the  compositors  branch  and 
the  printers  branch  of  the  local  union.     There  were  1,452  com- 

*The  figure  109,S17  U  taken  from  the  balance-sheet  for  1919.  It  does  not  agree 
with  the  figure  of  114,137  given  in  the  Origine  t  lo  Sviluppo  della  Federatione  delle 
Cooperative,  quoted  above,  as  the  latter  figure  includes  the  bonus  to  the  manager. 
If  the  bonus  (6,000)  for  1918  be  added  to  the  figure  for  1919  we  get  231,138. 
Siniilarly,  the  figures  in  the  Origine  for  the  amount  of  work  executed  are  adjusted 
to  allow  for  work  in  course  of  execution,  and  so  appear  somewhat  higher  than  the 
figures  in  the  balance-sheet. 


THE  MOVEMENT  IN  MILAN 


81 


Abbreviated  Balance-Sheet  of  the  Printers  Cooperative  Society  for  the 
Year  Ending  December  31,  1919 


Resources  and  liabilities 


1918 


1919 


Debit 
Social  capital: 

Compositors  branch- 
Printers  branch.- 


Lire 


72,400.40 
34,968.10 


Reserves 

Current  accounts- 
Effects  to  be  paid- 
Net  profit. 


Total.. 


Lire 


107,368.50 
31,218.44 

214,565.43 

92,256.00 

4,286.99 

449,695.00 


Lire 


103,457.65 
67,478.75 


Lire 


170,936.40- 
33,761.83 

148,222.81 

89,342.30' 

7,344.91 

449,608.25 


Credit 

Cash  in  hand 

Current  accounts: 

Bank.__ 

Clients 


405.66 
99,557.37 


Stock  in  hand: 

Paper,  envelopes,  etc 

Ink,  roller,  etc 

Work  in  progress 


1,920.83 


99,963.03 


162,190.75 
18,666.45 


98,381.00 
17,568.00 
24,788.00 


Realizable  effects 

Machines,  furniture,  etC- 

Deposits 

Buildings,  etc._ 


Total 


140,737.00 
2,489.00 

86,626.05 
5,684.35 

96,000.00 

449,695.00 


26,256.35 
12,843.50 
27,895.35 


1,777.45 


182,226.40; 


66,995. 20< 
6,831.0a 

90,393.00 
3,384.35 

98,000.00 

449,608.25 


positors  and  1,379  printers,  but  the  former  had  103,457  share 
capital  or  a  little  over  71  lire  a  head  and  the  latter  only  67,478 
or  a  little  less  than  49  lire  a  head.  The  net  profit  of  7,344.9 1  lire 
was  divided  according  to  the  laws  of  the  society,  as  the  above 
table  shows. 

A  second  society  visited  was  a  walking-stick  and  umbrella- 
handle  factory  founded  in  1907  with  the  small  capital  of  1,550 
lire  and  54  members.  By  1913  it  still  had  the  very  small  capi- 
tal of  4,843  lire  and  by  1918  had  only  increased  it  to  9,073  lire. 
Despite  this,  the  society  had  an  admirable  workshop  and  seemed 


82  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  NORTH  ITALY 

very  busy.  The  turnover  of  the  society  had  decreased  slightly 
in  1915,  but  had  recovered  by  1917,  which  is  curious,  as  luxury 
trades  as  a  rule  suffered  during  the  War.  From  1917  the  turn- 
over showed  a  steady  Increase,  but  as  a  balance-sheet  was  refused 
it  is  impossible  to  give  any  details.* 

A  third  society  for  making  iron  furniture  (bedsteads  and  tables 
for  hospitals,  etc.),  founded  in  1904  with  74  members,  had  con- 
siderable difficulty  in  establishing  itself,  but  by  1908  had  a  turn- 
over of  203,463  lire.  It  did  not  increase  its  business  much  until 
1918,  and  actually  did  less  business  in  1913  and  1914,  but  by 
1918  it  had  risen  to  361,854  lire,  which,  considering  the  fall  of 
the  value  of  money,  was  a  very  slight  increase.  The  pay-roll  was 
82.438  lire  in  1910  and  fell  to  49,561  in  1913  and  to  38,736  in 
1916.  In  1918  it  was  only  43,1 18  lire.  The  capital,  which  was 
5,182  lire  in  1906,  rose  to  22,247  in  1912,  fell  to  18,631  in  1914 
and  gradually  rose  to  38,495  in  1918.  The  figures  are  taken 
from  the  Origine  e  lo  Sviluppo.  A  balance-sheet  was  not  pro- 
curable, so  that  the  above  figures  are  all  the  definite  information 
obtainable.  The  last  two  societies,  unlike  the  printing  society, 
were  formed  only  of  the  workers  in  their  respective  factories, 
and  capitalized  by  them.  Anyone  applying  for  membership, 
however,  must  belong  to  a  trade-union  of  the  right  "color"  (in 
these  cases,  Socialist)  and  must  then  be  proposed  and  seconded 
by  members  of  the  society. 

The  above  examples,  though  they  do  not  include  the  big  build- 
ing and  labor  societies,  are  fair  examples  of  the  form  of  coopera- 
tive productive  society  found  in  Milan,  and  the  others,  large  or 
small,  are  formed  on  similar  lines. 

The  productive  societies  in  Milan  are  all  members  of  the 
Milanese  Federation  of  Cooperative  Productive  and  Labor 
Societies  (Federazione  Milanese  delle  Cooperative  di  Produzione 
e  Lavoro),  which  was  founded  in  1903  by  a  small  group  of  Social- 

'  I  found  it  extremely  difficult  to  get  figure*  from  the  productive  societies  and  was 
absolutely  refused  balance-sheets  in  most  cases.  This  I  understood  to  be  largely 
because  the  societies  were  afraid  that  publication  of  their  position  would  injure 
them,  though  there  was  a  suggestion  also  that  they  did  not  wish  the  revenue  authori- 
ties to  know  too  much  about  them. 


THE  MOVEMENT  IN  MILAN 


83 


ists.  It  did  not  take  definite  shape  for  a  year  or  two,  but  by  1904 
there  were  24  societies  with  over  5,000  members  affiliated  with  it. 
It  actually  began  its  work  in  1906  and  acts  as  a  central  body  for 
making  contracts,  where  more  than  one  society  is  involved,  for 
obtaining  credits,  for  accounting,  inspection,  etc.  In  cases  where 
a  contract  involves  the  work  of  several  societies,  the  Federation 
signs  the  contract  and  divides  the  work  among  the  different  socie- 
ties. Any  profit  made  goes  partly  to  the  Federation  and  partly 
to  the  different  societies. 

To  help  in  its  work,  the  Federation  employs  a  staff  of  trained 
engineers,  architects  and  accountants,  but  Italian  law  does  not 
allow  these  employes  to  be  members  of  the  societies  which  employ 
them. 

The  Federation  is  not  as  careful  to  keep  its  financial  position 
secret  as  are  the  individual  societies,  and  the  following  figures 
show  how  it  has  progressed  since  1908.  It  is  necessary  to  go 
back  to  that  year  in  order  to  show  the  extraordinary  fluctuations 
in  the  amount  of  work  done.  From  the  table  it  appears  that  the 
War  had  no  marked  effect  on  the  prosperity  of  cooperative  pro- 
duction, as  a  whole,  in  Milan. 

Financial  Condition  of  the  Cooperative  Federation  of  Milan,  1908-1919 


Year« 

Value  of  work 

executed  or  in 

course  of 

execution 

Paid  for 

labor, 

materials, 

etc. 

Expenses 
of  adminis- 
tration, etc. 

Net  profits 

1908-9 

Lire 
2,117,662 
2,332,885 
3,085,401 
3,264,852 
1,928,801 
1,818,457 
1,845,186 
2,759,364 
1,942,078 
3,710,621 
3,789,658 

Lire 

2,055,538 
2,250,324 
2,947,495 
3,156,737 
1,818,511 
1,704,706 
1,712,912 
2,625,264 
1,790,647 
3,534,148 
3,575,556 

Lire 

42,253 

76,658 

128,281 

91,132 

92,059 

95,742 

114,663 

121,467 

126,770 

147,908 

168,129 

Lire 
35,605 
23,963 
26,287 
28,138 

1909-10. 

1910-11 

1911-12 

1912-13 

30,438 
30,030 
29,015 
25,915 

1913-14 

1914-15 

1915-16...„_ 

1916-17 

36,641 

1917-18 „„ 

1918-19 „...._ 

54,606 
63,286 

'The  financial  year  runs  from  July  1  to  June  30. 


84  the  cooperative  movement  in  north  italy 

The  Movement  in  Genoa 

Genoa  is  the  center  of  a  very  active  cooperative  productive 
movement,  which  is  centered  in  the  Consdrzio  Ligure  delle  Co- 
operative di  Produzione  e  Lavoro.  The  Genoese  societies  are 
many  of  them  very  strong  and  they  have  undertaken  construc- 
tion work  on  a  big  scale.  The  most  celebrated  society  in  Genoa 
is  the  shipbuilding  society,  which  owns  the  largest  shipyard  in 
Genoa  and  does  much  repairing  and  shipbuilding  work.  This 
society  has  about  600  workers.  It  was  not  possible  to  get  any 
definite  information  as  to  its  position,  as  balance-sheets  were  re- 
fused, but  the  yard  looked  very  prosperous  and  busy.  The 
society  was  founded  in  1907.  It  was  very  small  and  had  only 
about  5,000  lire  capital.  According  to  the  reports  of  the  Con- 
s6rzio,  it  had  116,015  lire  paid-up  capital  in  1914  and  649,299 
in  1918,  and  the  value  of  the  work  done  had  increased  from 
1,095,325  lire  in  1914  to  9,000,000  in  1918. 

The  coal  porters  of  the  port  have  also  formed  a  large  society 
which  controls  practically  the  whole  labor  of  the  harbor.  It 
increased  its  capital  from  126,979  lire  in  1914  to  332,979  in 
1918. 

There  is  also  a  prosperous  society  of  ships'  carpenters. 

Besides  the  societies  connected  with  shipping,  there  are  a  num- 
ber of  powerful  building  societies,  which  have,  among  other  con- 
tracts, undertaken  the  building  of  an  immense  hospital  for  the 
municipality  of  Genoa.  The  societies  had  tendered  for  the 
building  of  the  hospital  in  competition  with  ordinary  contractors. 
The  municipality  offered  7,000,000  lire  for  the  work,  but  no 
private  contractor  would  do  it  for  that  price.  The  cooperative 
societies,  however,  undertook  to  build  the  hospital  for  7,000,000 
lire  less  10  per  cent.  The  contract  was  tendered  for  and  signed 
by  the  Cons6rzio,  which,  like  the  Federation  at  Milan,  has  a  staff 
of  engineers  and  architects.  The  different  parts  of  the  work — 
building,  woodwork,  plumbing,  etc. — were  then  given  out  to  the 
different  societies. 

Each  society  is  responsible  for  the  discipline  of  its  own  men, 
but,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  general  working  of  the  scheme,  a 


THE  MOVEMENT  IN  GENOA  85 

weekly  meeting  of  representatives  from  each  society  is  held,  at 
which  the  work  for  the  coming  week  is  discussed  and  so  arranged 
that  the  work  of  one  society  will  not  impede  the  work  of  another. 
The  result  seems  to  be  satisfactory. 

According  as  the  work  proceeds,  payment  is  made  by  the 
municipality  to  the  Cons6rzio,  which  in  turn  pays  the  societies. 
The  Cons6rzio  borrows  money  from  the  Cooperative  Credit  In- 
stitution to  pay  the  societies  in  advance,  and  so  enable  them  to 
pay  their  workers  and  to  buy  the  necessary  materials  for  their 
work. 

In  Genoa,  roughly  one  half  of  the  workers  in  the  cooperative 
societies  are  members.  The  remainder  are  either  men  who  do 
not  wish  to  undertake  the  responsibility  of  becoming  members 
of  the  societies  or  men  who  are  regarded  as  not  desirable  as 
members.  The  societies  are  careful  as  to  whom  they  admit  to 
membership,  which  is  one  of  the  secrets  of  their  success.  Trade- 
union  rates  of  wages  are  paid,  and  the  profits  are  given  partly  to 
reserve  funds,  party  to  provident  and  sickness  funds,  partly  to 
social  funds  to  be  used  for  the  general  good  of  the  society,  and  the 
remainder  to  the  members  in  proportion  to  the  work  done  by  them. 
Some  societies  give  non-member  workers  a  share  in  the  profits. 
The  proportion  of  profits  divided  among  the  members  varies 
from  50  per  cent  to  80  per  cent.  Ten  per  cent  is  usually  set 
aside  for  reserves.  Sometimes  the  managing  committee  gets  a 
small  percentage  for  itself. 

A  general  view  of  the  position  of  the  Genoese  societies  and 
their  Cons6rzio  in  1914  and  1918  is  given  by  the  tables  on  pages 
86  and  87. 

The  effect  of  the  War  on  the  societies  was  what  might  have 
been  expected.  The  shipbuilding  and  coal-porters  societies 
made  great  strides,  and  the  other  trades  which  did  necessary 
work  (e.  g.,  braziers,  electricians)  also  made  progress,  but  the 
luxury  trades,  such  as  marble-workers,  suffered  a  temporary  set- 
back. From  the  reports  given  in  1920  it  would  appear  that  all 
the  societies  were  benefiting  by  the  peace,  but  no  doubt  the  in- 
crease in  work  which  came  in  1 920  had  ended  by  1921. 


86 


THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMEhTT  IN  NORTH  ITALY 


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THE  MOVEMENT  IN  GENOA 


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B8  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  NORTH  ITALY 

There  are  in  other  Italian  towns  similar  federations  to  the  ones 
at  Milan  and  Genoa;  a  new  one  was  formed  in  Rome  in  1920 
and  one  was  in  process  of  formation  in  Florence.  The  general 
impression  given  by  a  visit  to  the  productive  societies  was  that 
the  War  had  not  affected  them  adversely,  but  on  the  whole  had 
benefited  them.  It  is  much  to  be  hoped  that  a  full  investigation 
of  the  position  and  prjspects  of  the  cooperative  productive  socie- 
ties will  be  made  as  soon  as  the  present  industrial  unrest  in  Italy 
is  settled.  They  form  one  of  the  most  interesting  features  in 
the  cooperative  world  today.  Whether  the  Catholic  productive 
societies  and  the  Socialist  ones  will  ever  unite  into  a  federation 
for  all  Italy  remains  a  problem  of  the  future.  At  present  there 
are  no  signs  of  such  an  amalgamation  becoming  possible,  but  if  it 
should  ever  happen,  Italian  cooperation  will  soon  be  in  a  position 
to  control  the  greater  part  of  Italian  industry. 

The  Movement  in  Venetia 

Venetia  is  one  of  the  strongholds  of  Catholic  cooperation  in 
Italy,  and  Venice  is  the  center  of  a  union  of  Catholic  productive 
societies.  The  union  is  run  on  much  the  same  lines  as  the 
Genoese  and  Milanese  federations,  except  that  it  is  as  definitely 
Catholic  in  tone  as  the  others  are  Socialist.  An  exception  to  this 
rule  is  a  society  of  lace-makers  in  Venice  itself,  which  was  formed 
by  charitable  ladies  to  give  employment  to  girls  thrown  out  of 
work  by  the  War.  It  also  made  clothes  and  had  a  large  contract 
from  the  Government  for  uniforms.  This  society  is  non-political. 
A  very  interesting  post-war  development,  however,  is  the  group 
of  Catholic  reconstruction  societies  in  the  Piave  Valley.  This 
district  was  almost  destroyed  during  the  War,  and  the  villages  for 
a  couple  of  miles  on  each  side  of  the  river  are  simply  heaps  of 
ruins,  and  the  houses  farther  back  from  the  river  suffered  from 
aerial  bombardment. 

The  headquarters  of  the  reconstruction  societies  is  a  Consftrzio 
at  Treviso,  but  the  actual  administration  is  carried  on  in  two  sec- 
tions, one  at  Treviso  and  the  other  at  Conigliano  on  the  farther 
or  eastern  side  of  the  river.  The  work  is  carried  out  under  a 
certain  amount  of  government  supervision.  The  Ministry  of 
Reconstruction  pays  for  the  rebuilding  of  destroyed  property, 


THE  MOVEMENT  IN  VENETIA  89 

though  if  the  owner  wishes  to  build  a  better  building  than  he  had 
he  can  add  to  the  sum  paid.  When  the  Ministry  of  Reconstruc- 
tion sanctions  a  plan  for  rebuilding,  preference  is  given  to  coopera- 
tive societies  in  placing  the  contract  for  reconstruction.  A  con- 
tract based  on  the  contract  form  prepared  by  the  engineers  of 
the  Ministry  is  filled  in  by  the  society  which  proposes  to  do  the 
work  and  is  then  sent  to  the  headquarters  at  Treviso,  where  it  is 
submitted  to  the  engineers  of  the  Consdrzio  and  when  passed  by 
them  is  sent  to  the  cooperative  Banco  di  Lavoro,  which  will  ad- 
vance 60  per  cent  of  the  value  of  the  contract.  The  Government 
pays  in  fortnightly  instalments  as  the  work  progresses,  but  the 
Banco  di  Lavoro  takes  over  the  payments  and  repays  its  own 
loan,  and  the  balance  then  goes  to  the  society.  The  whole  pro- 
ceeding, from  the  application  for  reconstruction  to  the  Ministry 
to  the  advancing  of  the  money,  takes  only  a  few  days. 

The  Cons6rzio  itself  is  governed  by  a  committee  of  representa- 
tives elected  by  the  cooperative  construction  societies,  and  has  a 
staff  of  about  40  engineers  and  accountants.  The  Consdrzio  was 
organized  by  the  headquarters  of  the  Catholic  cooperative  socie- 
ties at  Rome,  who  appointed  the  officials  in  the  first  instance.  It 
then  organized  the  societies,  and  is  now  controlled  by  a  commit- 
tee appointed  by  them.  The  impulse  thus  came  from  above,  but 
the  control  now  rests  with  the  societies. 

The  Consorzio  is  financed  by  taking  2  per  cent  on  the  contracts 
made  by  the  societies.  It  also  acts  as  a  wholesale  agent  for  the 
societies  and  supplies  them  with  building  materials,  etc.  It  was 
financed  in  the  first  instance  by  the  cooperative  Banco  di  Lavoro, 
which  is  a  federation  of  cooperative  banks  and  is  largely  con- 
cerned in  helping  new  societies. 

Up  to  June  9,  1920,  the  Consdrzio  had  done  work  to  the  value 
of  between  20,000,000  and  30,000,000  lire,  and  expected  to  do 
work  to  the  extent  of  50,000,000  lire  in  the  next  year.  It  had 
altogether  about  1,800  houses  to  build,  of  which  about  1,000  were 
under  construction  by  the  Conighano  division,  and  800  by  the 
Treviso  division. 

The  following  is  a  description  of  two  typical  societies  at  Fagare 
and  Susegana.  That  at  Fagare  was  founded  in  the  early  part  of 
August,  1919;  by  May  31,  1920,  it  had  done  work  to  the  value  of 


90  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  NORTH  ITALY 

500,000  lire.  It  has  153  members,  each  of  whom  must  be  a 
shareholder.  The  shares  are  25  lire  each,  and  liability  is  unlim- 
ited. The  balance-sheet  had  not  yet  been  made  up,  but  the 
manager  thought  it  probable  that  they  would  have  made  a  profit 
of  about  50,000  lire.  All  such  estimates,  however,  are  very 
untrustworthy.  The  laws  provide  that  the  profits  are  to  be  di- 
vided as  follows:  50  per  cent  to  the  members,  in  proportion  to 
the  work  done  by  them,  20  per  cent  to  interest  on  share  capital, 
20  per  cent  to  reserve,  and  10  per  cent  to  the  employes  of  the 
society,  that  is,  to  clerks,  etc.  Members  are  admitted  by  the 
committee  of  the  society,  but  in  case  of  refusal  there  is  an  appeal 
to  the  probiviriy  or  committee  appointed  to  deal  with  disputes. 
The  working  day  is  from  8  to  10  hours,  and  the  wages  vary 
from  1 .40  to  2  lire  an  hour. 

There  are  three  different  kinds  of  workers  in  the  society: 
laborers,  builders  and  carpenters.  The  manager  of  the  society 
is  himself  a  workman  who  has  worked  in  many  parts  of  the 
world — France,  England  and  America — and  seemed  to  be  very 
intelligent.  The  premises  consist  of  a  small  builders'  yard,  with 
a  carpenter  shop  attached,  and  a  small  sawmill. 

The  society  at  Susegana  was  like  that  at  Fagare,  except  that  it 
has  auxiliaries  as  well  as  members,  65  members  and  65  auxiliaries; 
and,  as  it  was  undertaking  specially  important  reconstruction 
work,  it  had  a  surveyor  and  an  accountant  of  its  own  appointed  by 
the  Consdrzio.  The  Susegana  society  was  building  a  large  num- 
ber of  houses,  and,  among  others,  rebuilding  a  convent  school, 
which  was  quite  a  big  piece  of  work.  It  has  also  taken  over  a 
small  brick  works  which  had  been  destroyed  in  the  fighting,  and 
was  hard  at  work  making  bricks  at  the  time  of  our  visit.  The 
furnaces  had  not  yet  been  erected,  nor  had  the  society  any  machin- 
ery for  making  bricks,  which  were  all  being  made  by  hand. 

The  whole  work  done  seemed  very  good  and  well  organized. 
It  is  run  on  definitely  Catholic  lines  and  the  societies  are  looked 
upon  as  centers  of  Catholic  propaganda  in  the  same  way  that  the 
Socialist  societies  are  regarded  by  the  Socialists.  The  offices, 
both  of  the  league  and  of  the  individual  societies  visited,  gave  one 
the  impression  of  great  activity  and  concentration  on  the  work; 


AGRICULTURAL  COOPERATIVES  91 

and,  however  much  the  societies  may  talk  politics  out  of  working 
hours,  in  working  hours  they  certainly  stuck  to  business. 

Though  this  Cons6rzio  and  its  component  societies  is  entirely  a 
post-war  growth,  it  is  clear  that  it  is  intended  to  be  permanent, 
and  that  the  Piave  Valley,  at  any  rate,  will  have  a  very  strong 
cooperative  organization  from  now  on. 

Agricultural  Cooperatives 

From  many  points  of  view  the  cooperative  farming  societies 
are  the  most  interesting  form  of  cooperation  in  Italy. 

The  Socialist  farming  societies  are  more  interesting  than  the 
Catholic  ones,  as  the  former  have  many  examples  of  collective 
agriculture,  while  the  latter  believe  in  individual  ownership  and 
their  cooperation  is  mainly  for  the  leasing  of  the  land  which  is 
divided  among  the  members.  The  headquarters  of  the  Socialist 
societies  is  a  subfederation  of  the  Lega  Nazionale  situated  at 
Bologna  (Federazione  Nazionale  di  Cooperative  Agricole). 

The  societies  are  divided  into  two  classes :  ( 1 )  those  which, 
like  the  Catholic  societies,  divide  the  land  among  their  members 
(affitanze  divise)  and  (2)  those  which  practise  cooperative  farm- 
ing (affitanze  collettive).  The  first  need  not  be  described  here, 
as  they  are  roughly  similar  to  the  Rumanian  societies.  The 
second  are  more  favored  by  Socialists,  though  the  leaders  of  the 
federation  are  not  doctrinarians  and  do  not  attempt  to  force  their 
views  where  they  are  not  sure  of  success. 

The  land  system  of  Italy  differs  in  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, but  the  most  usual  system  was  the  mezzadria  system,  by  which 
the  landlord  provides  a  certain  proportion  of  the  seeds,  cattle, 
implements,  etc.,  necessary  for  the  cultivation  of  the  land,  the 
tenant  works  the  land  and  the  produce  is  given  half  to  the  tenant 
and  half  to  the  landlord.  This  system  has  become  very  unpopu- 
lar and  is  rapidly  disappearing.  In  the  district  near  Florence, 
for  example,  the  main  features  of  the  system  have  been  retained, 
but  a  union  of  tenants  has  forced  the  landlords  to  come  to  a  writ- 
ten contract  with  them,  whereby  the  tenant's  tenure  is  secured,  and 
the  exact  amount  of  work  he  is  to  do  for  the  landlord  and  the 
exact  amount  the  landlord  is  to  allow  for  every  beast  or  be  al- 


92  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  NORTH  ITALY 

lowed  for  beasts  that  die,  etc.,  is  laid  down  as  rigidly  as  a  fixed 
rent  in  money.  Security  of  tenure  was  the  chief  desire  of  the 
tenants,  but  they  are  coming  more  and  more  to  demand  fixed 
money  rents  instead  of  the  sharing  system.  Besides  this,  there 
it  a  strong  movement  in  northern  Italy  for  nationalizing  the  land, 
and  in  many  cases  land  has  been  seized  and  cultivated  by  bodies  of 
agricultural  laborers.     These  seizures  are  called  "invasions." 

The  lot  of  the  agricultural  laborer  was  bad,  and  as  an  outcome 
of  a  prolonged  strike  in  the  district  of  Reggio,  Emilia,  a  piece  of 
land  was  secured  from  friendly  owners  by  a  number  of  laborers 
and  worked  collectively  by  them  to  provide  themselves  with 
work  during  the  strike  and  the  slackness  which  succeeded  it. 
From  this  the  collective  farming  societies  took  their  rise.  Be- 
fore the  War  these  societies  were  growing  rapidly  and  on  the 
whole  succeeding  well,  and  during  the  War  the  Italian  Govern- 
ment passed  legislation  to  insure  the  proper  cultivation  of  land, 
which  helped  them  considerably. 

In  1920  the  societies  were  increasing  so  fast  that  the  federa- 
tion, which  had  been  founded  in  1918  with  the  special  object  of 
looking  after  the  agricultural  societies,  could  hardly  keep  pace 
with  the  work. 

The  societies  are  much  helped  by  the  fact  that  a  great  number 
of  public  bodies  in  northern  Italy  have  Socialist  majorities  which 
are  ready  to  let  lands  to  cooperative  farming  societies.  Private 
landlords  also  find  the  societies  satisfactory  to  deal  with;  they 
are  a  solution  to  the  labor  difficulties  which  beset  Italian  land- 
owners. Nearly  all  the  agricultural  labor  is  organized  into  trade- 
unions,  which  have  done  much  to  improve  the  condition  of  the 
laborers,  but  which  make  things  difficult  for  the  employers.  A 
result  of  this  is  that  there  are  hard  and  fast  regulations  as  to  the 
hours  of  work  and  pay  for  every  kind  of  agricultural  work. 
The  work  day  is  short  (6  to  8  hours)  and  the  meal  times  and 
rest  times  are  carefully  specified.  This  is  possible  in  a  country 
like  Italy,  where  the  climate  allows  of  regular  work  in  the  fields, 
but  it  would  be  impossible  in  Ireland,  where  it  is  often  impossible 
to  prophesy  what  work  can  be  done  the  next  day. 

The  societies,  which  are  usually  attached  to  trade-unions, 
though  separately  organized,  practically  control  the  labor  in  their 


AGRICULTURAL  COOPERATIVES  93 

districts  and  arrange  at  weekly  or,  in  some  cases,  daily  meetings 
who  is  to  work  for  private  employers  and  who  to  work  on  the 
society's  land.  Besides  their  agricultural  work,  the  societies 
undertake  contracts  for  draining,  road-making  and  other  manual 
work.  As  the  societies  usually  have  many  more  members  than 
it  would  be  possible  to  employ  on  their  own  land,  they  become  a 
mixture  of  cooperative  farming  society  and  labor  bureau.  It  is 
unusual  for  men  to  be  employed  for  long  consecutive  periods  on 
the  society's  land,  but  they  take  turns  in  working  for  the  society 
and  in  working  outside  it.  The  foremen,  heads  and  other 
responsible  workers  are,  of  course,  full-time  workers,  but  they 
get  a  lower  rate  of  pay  than  the  ordinary  workers,  as  a  balance 
to  the  security  of  their  position. 

Under  the  big  federation  at  Bologna  there  are  district  federa- 
tions, which  employ  accountants  to  audit  the  societies'  books  and 
experts  to  advise  them  on  any  difficulties  that  may  arise.  As  may 
be  imagined,  the  constant  changing  of  the  workers  means  compli- 
cated accounts,  so  that  accountancy  help  is  much  needed. 

The  following  description  of  two  cooperative  farms  will  serve 
to  illustrate  the  various  points  which  are  mentioned  above.  Pro- 
fessor Mami,  of  the  National  Federation,  was  very  kind  in  ex- 
plaining the  working  of  the  farms. 

Cooperative  Farm  at  Massa  Lombarda,  between  Bologna  and 
Ravenna :  This  society  farms  about  200  acres  of  land,  part  of 
which  (about  50  acres)  is  a  fruit  farm  held  from  the  owner  of  a 
jam  factory  on  the  mhzadria  system.  Half  of  the  fruit  goes  to 
the  owner  and  the  remainder  is  sold  to  him.  There  are  400 
members  in  the  society,  of  whom  about  20  at  a  time  are  employed 
on  the  fruit  farm  and  a  small  number  on  the  ordinary  farm.  The 
total  pay-roll  in  1919  was  about  70,000  lire.  The  workers  get 
about  20  lire  a  day.  The  members  of  the  society  include  prac- 
tically all  the  agricultural  workers  in  the  small  district  of  Massa 
Lombarda,  so  that  any  private  landowner  has  to  apply  to  the 
society  if  he  wants  a  laborer,  man  or  woman.  The  society  takes 
contracts  for  road-making,  etc.  The  foremen  are  called  "special 
workers"  and  are  employed  for  their  whole  time.  They  are  paid 
1 6  to  17  lire  a  day.  ( Prewar  wages  were  from  4  to  5  lire  a  day. ) 
The  special  workers  are  appointed  by  the  manager  of  the  society, 


94  THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT  IN  NORTH  ITALY 

who  is  subject  to  an  elected  committee.  The  committee  is  elected 
for  two  years  and  one  half  retires  each  year.  The  shares  arc  10 
lire  each.  The  profits  are  divided  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
of  days  worked  by  each  individual,  who  is  provided  with  a  small 
book  in  which  each  day's  work  done  by  him  is  entered.  The 
member's  work  is  also  entered  in  a  ledger  each  day,  and  every 
week  the  books  are  sent  to  the  local  federation  to  be  made  up. 
The  society  has  its  office  in  the  local  trade-union  hall,  with  which 
it  is  in  close  touch. 

At  Molinella,  about  ten  miles  north  of  Massa  Lombarda, 
there  is  a  larger  society,  which  holds  about  1,500  acres  of  land, 
of  which  about  500  is  used  for  growing  rice  and  about  250  for 
wheat  and  maize.  The  remainder  is  used  as  a  reservoir  for 
water  to  flood  the  rice  fields,  so  that  only  about  750  acres  are 
cultivated.  Out  of  the  10,000  inhabitants  of  the  district,  3,000 
belong  to  the  society,  so  that  it  has  practically  complete  control 
of  the  labor  of  the  commune.  This  society  was  formed  in  1905, 
and  after  some  years  of  struggle  and  loss  was  on  the  verge  of 
ruin  in  1912.  In  this  year  the  members  each  gave  a  day's  work 
free,  to  try  to  save  their  society,  and  a  new  and  enthusiastic  man- 
ager, Signor  Massarenti,  by  reducing  the  expenses  of  administra- 
tion from  23,614  lire  to  1,255,  brought  the  society  to  a  sound 
financial  position.  In  1914  a  profit  of  790  lire  was  made.  It 
was  not  possible  to  get  figures  for  later  years,  but  the  society  is 
said  to  be  progressing  well.  It  has  a  well-equipped  farm  with 
ujvto-date  machinery,  threshing  machines,  tractors,  etc.  This 
society  also  undertakes  contracts  of  various  kinds.  Signor  Mas- 
sarenti did  not  like  rice  cultivation,  as  he  considered  it  very  heavy 
and  unhealthy  work.*  He  hoped  to  be  able  to  abandon  it  for 
other  forms  of  agriculture.  He  is  strongly  opposed  to  any  form 
of  divided  ownership. 

As  at  Massa  Lombarda,  the  work  is  done  by  the  members  of 
the  society  working  in  their  turn,  and  only  a  few  foremen  are 
permanently  employed,  but  they  hope  gradually  to  increase  their 

*  Signor  Massarenti  is  not  a  farm  worker,  but  is  a  man  who  has  devoted  to  the 
laborers  in  his  district  talents  which  would  have  gained  wealth  for  himself. 


AGRICULTURAL  COOPERATIVES  95 

land  until  they  are  able  to  keep  their  members  permanently  em- 
ployed. The  society  holds  its  land  on  lease,  not  on  the  mhza- 
dria  system. 

Of  the  150  farming  societies  belonging  to  the  federation,  about 
100  are  for  collective  farming  on  lines  similar  to  the  two  societies 
described  above,  and  the  remainder  are  societies  for  dividing  the 
land  acquired  by  them  among  their  members ;  but  even  these  lat- 
ter have  sometimes  a  certain  amount  of  land  held  in  common  for 
grazing  or  some  other  use  which  lends  itself  to  collective  owner- 
ship. In  the  same  way,  some  of  the  Catholic  societies  have  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  land  held  in  common. 


INDEX 


Agram,  see  Zagreb. 

Agrarian  Bank,  of  Zagreb,  20-1. 

Agricultural  consumers  societies:  num- 
ber of,  in  Serbia,  7;  work  of,  in  Kora- 
cica,  11,  13 ;  in  Markovec,  16-7 ;  in  Slo- 
venia, 29  ;  in  Rumania,  45  et  seq.,  56. 

Agricultural  cooperation:  in  Jugoslavia, 
5 ;  in  Rumania,  47-8,  56 ;  wholesale 
societies  for,  in  Rumania,  63-4;  in 
Italy,  71-2,  91  et  seq. 

Alleanza  Cooperativa  Milanese,  work  of, 
75-6. 

Arangjelovac,  14. 

Assurance  societies,  number  of,  in  Dal- 
matia,  33. 

Austria:  4,  30;  invasion  of  Selo-Banja, 
by,  14-5 ;  invasion  of  Markovec  by, 
16;  effort  of,  to  centralize  coopera- 
tion, 32;  annexation  of  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina,  36. 

Avramovitch,  M.,  work  of,  in  coopera- 
tion in  Serbia,  6  et  seq.,  19,  23. 

Azienda  Consorziale  dei  Consumi  de 
Milano  (Municipal  supply  society  of 
Milan),  work  of,  76  et  seq. 

Bancilor  Populare  (Peoples  Bank),  co- 
operative work  of,  in  Rumania,  45  et 
seq. 

Banks:  central,  of  cooperative  societies 
in  Serbia,  7 ;  Agrarian  Bank  of  Za- 
greb, 20-1 ;  cooperative,  in  Sarajevo, 
39 ;  People's  Banks  in  Rumania,  45 
et  seq. 

Barley:  raised  in  Serbia,  9;  in  Bukovec, 
24. 

Bee-keeping  societies,  number  of,  in  Dal- 
matia,  33. 

Belgrade :  population  of,  3 ;  central  co- 
operative bank  at,  7;  work  of  con- 
sumers societies  of,  43, 

Bessarabia:  land  reform  in,  49;  Raif- 
feisen  banks  in,  58-9. 

Bol,  work  of  cooperative  societies  in, 
33-4. 

Bologna,  headquarters  of  agricultural 
section  of  Socialist  societies  at,  73,  91. 

Bootmakers  society,  work  of  in  Ljubl- 
jana, 32. 

Bosnia:  area  and  population  of,  5;  Aus- 
trian annexation  of,  16;  work  of  co- 
operative societies  in,  36  et  seq. 

BrSila,  64. 

Bucharest:  54;  agricultural  wholesale  so- 
ciety in,  63-4;  work  of  cooperative 
societies  of,  65-6. 

Bucuresti,  wholesale  society  in  Bucha- 
rest, 66-7. 

Building  societies,  in  Slovenia,  29  et 
seq. 


Bukovec,  work  of  cooperative  store  and 
credit  societies  in,  24  et  seq. 

Campulung,  work  of  forest  societies  at, 
6.1   et  seq. 

Carinthia,  4. 

Carniola,  area,  population  and  indus- 
tries of,  4. 

Catholic  cooperative  societies,  work  of, 
in  Italy,  73  et  seq. 

Cattle-raising:  in  Serbia,  10;  societies 
for,  in  St.  Ivan  Zabno,  28 ;  in  Slo- 
venia, 29. 

Centrals:  for  the  People's  Banks  in 
Rumania,  46,  56-7;  for  the  Village 
Buying  and  Selling  Societies,  57-8 ;  for 
the  Cooperative  Farming  Societies,  58 ; 
for  Urban  Cooperative  Societies,  58; 
for  the  Agricultural  Societies  60  et 
seq.;  of  Trades,  Credit  and  Workers 
Insurance,  65  et  seq. 

Coal  porters  society,  work  of,  of  Genoa, 
84. 

Confederazione  Cooperativa  Italiana, 
headquarters  of  Catholic  cooperative 
societies,  73-4. 

Consbrzio,  work  of,  73,  84—5,  89  et  seq. 

Constantinople,  10. 

Constanza,  64. 

Consumers  societies:  work  of,  at  Mlade- 
novac,  10-11;  in  Slovenia,  30  et  seq,; 
in  Dalmatia,  33 ;  "Rumania,"  66 ;  in 
Italy,  72-3 ;  75. 

Cotton,  raised  in  Serbia,  9. 

Credit:  need  of,  in  Serbia  before  War, 
8;  given  by  Cooperative  Union  of 
Belgrade,  IS,  18. 

Credit  societies:  work  of,  in  Serbia,  7; 
in  Koracica,  11-2;  in  Agram  and 
Osijeh,  19-20;  in  Bukovec,  24  et  seq.; 
in  Slovenia,  29  et  seq.;  in  Dalmatia, 
33;  in  Bol,  33-4;  in  Rumania,  45  et 
seq.,  56. 

Croatia:  area,  population  and  indus- 
tries of,  4;  types  of  cooperative  socie- 
ties in,  6,  20  et  seq. 

Croatian-Slovenian  Agricultural  Society, 
21. 

Dairies  (cooperative):  in  Serbia,  7;  at 
Ricica,  27;  in  Slovenia,  29  et  seq. 

Dalmatia:  area,  population  of,  4;  work 
of  cooperative  societies  in,  33   ^/  seq. 

Distributive  societies,  number  of,  in  Ser- 
bia, 7. 

Duhrovniku,  cooperative  union  of,  33. 

Fagare,  work  of  reconstruction  society 
at,  89-90. 

97 


98 


INDEX 


Farming  Mdetiea:  at  Oltenitta,  Sl>2;  io 
Italy,  91  tt  ttq. 

Federation:  work  of,  io  Rumania,  55; 
io  Milan,  tS. 

Fiahing  aodetiet,  in  Dalmatia,  33-4. 

Forest  aodetiea,  work  of,  at  Campulung, 
61-2. 

France,  cooperative  movement  in,  1. 

Furniture-making  tocietiet:  in  Bucha- 
rest, 6S;  io  Milan,  82. 

Galatx.  64. 

Genoa:  productive  and  labor  todeties 
in,  7S-9,  14-5 ;  financial  condition  of 
cooperative  aocietiea  of  (1914-18), 
86-7. 

Giurgiu,  6S. 

Goritzia,  4. 

Herzegovina:  area  and  population  of, 
5;  cooperative  sodetiet  of,  36  et  seq. 

Home  industry  sodetiea,  work  of,  in  Slo- 
venia 29  et  seq, 

Hungary,  22,  26. 

Ilfov,  54. 
latria,  4. 

Italy,  character  of  cooperation  in,  2; 
work  of  cooperative  societies  of,  71 
ei  seq. 

Jugoslavia,  character  and  work  of  co- 
operative societies  in,  2  et  seq.  See 
also  Serbia,  Croatia,  Slovenia,  Dal- 
matia and  Bosnia  and  Herzegovnia. 

Karlovac,  work  of   agricultural   society 

at,  27-8. 
Kisinan,  Central  Union  at,  59. 
Klagenfurt,  plebiscite  for  possession  of, 

4. 
Koradca,  cooperative  sodeties  in,  11  et 

seq. 

Land  Registry  and  Surveying,  Depart- 
'nent  of,  in  Rumania,  58. 

Land  system:  of  Bessarabia,  49;  of 
Rumania,  49-50;  of  Italy,  91-2. 

League  of  Producers  Sodeties,  work  of, 
in  Genoa,  71. 

Lega  Nazionale  delle  Cooperative,  73. 

Libraries:  provided  by  Markovec  Agri- 
cultural Sodety,  18;  by  Bukovec  Credit 
Sodety,  24. 

Livestodc  insurance  sodeties,  in  Serbia, 
7. 

Ljubljana  (Laibach) :  capital  of  Car- 
niola,  4;  cooperative  sodeties  in,  29 
et  seq. 

lyoans:  to  cooperative  sodeties,  by  cen- 
tral bank  at  Belgrade,  7;  to  coopera- 
tive sodeties  by  Cooperative  Union  of 
Belgrade,  14;  by  Markovec  Agricul- 
tural Soidety  to  members,  17;  by 
Bukovec  Credit  Society,  24-5;  by  Bol 


Cooperative  Sodety,  34 ;  by  Central  of 
Rumania,  46-7;  by  People's  Bank  at 
Oltenitza,  53. 

Machinery  societies:  in  Serbia,  7;  work 
of,  in  Slovenia,  29;  in  Dalmatia,  33; 
in  Rumania,  56. 

Maize:  raised  in  Serbia,  9;  in  Bukovec, 
24;  in  Rumania,  47. 

Mami,  Professor,  93. 

Markovec:  invasion  of,  by  Austria,  16; 
work  of  agricultural  society  in,  16  et 
seq. 

Massarenti,  94. 

Medical  treatment,  given  by  Markovec 
Society,  to  members,  18. 

Mezzadria  system  (land  system),  in 
Italy,  91  et  seq. 

Milan:  Sodalist  consumers  section  head- 
quarters in,  73  ;  development  of  con- 
sumers societies  in,  75 ;  system  of 
municipal  supply  in,  76-7;  productive 
societies  in,  78  et  seq. 

Mill  sodeties,  number  of,  in  Dalmatia, 
33. 

Milojavich,  M.,  manager  of  Markovec 
Agricultural  Society,  19. 

Mladenatz,  G.,  69. 

Mladenovac,  work  of  cooperative  socie- 
ties in,  10-11,  13. 

Monopolies,  Serbian  government,  of 
salt  and  tobacco,  9. 

Montenegro,  35. 

Mortgage  Credits,  Department  of  Rural, 
in  Rumania,  58. 

Municipal  supply,  system  of,  in  Milan, 
76-7. 

Nish,  10,  16. 

Oats:  raised  in  Serbia,  9;  in  Bukovec, 
24;  in  Rumania,  47. 

Oil-making  societies,  number  of,  in  Dal- 
matia, 33. 

Oltenitza:  farming  sodety  at,  51-2;  Peo- 
ple's Bank  at,  52  et  seq.;  Federation 
at,  56. 

Osijeh,  credit  sodiety  in,  19-20. 

People's  Bank:  of  Rumania,  45  et  seq.; 
losses  of,  due  to  War,  59. 

Perfume  sodeties,  number  of,  in  Dal- 
matia, 33. 

Plums,  raised  in  Serbia,  9. 

Population:  of  Serbia,  3;  of  Slavonia 
and  Croatia,  4;  of  Carinthia  and  Car- 
niola,  4;  of  Dalmatia,  4;  of  Bosnia 
and  Herzegovina,  5 ;  of  Rumania,  56. 

Porters  society,  in  Ljubljana,  30. 

Poultry  sodety,  in  Ljubljana,  30. 

Pravila  Nakupovalne  Zadruga,  coopera- 
tive union  at  Ljubljana,  32-3  ;  43. 

Printers  productive  societies:  work  of, 
in  Ljubljana,  30;  development  of,  in 
Milan,  79  et  seq. 


INDEX 


99 


Productive  socieries,  types  of,  in  Italy, 
72-3  ;  79  et  seq. 

Profits:  of  Bukovec  cooperative  societies 
(i911-19),  25-6;  of  Zagreb  consum- 
ers society  (1914-19),  42;  of  Central 
for  Agricultural  Cooperative  Socie- 
ties, 62;  division  of,  of  printers  socie- 
ty of  Milan,  80-1. 

Prohaska,  Dr.,  of  Rumania,  secretary  of 
Union  of  Unions,  44. 

Publishing  societies,  number  of,  in  Dal- 
matia,  33. 

Raiifeisen  banks  and  credit  societies:  in 
Serbia,  5,  17;  in  Croatia,  22;  in  Slo- 
venia, 29 ;  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina, 
39 ;  in  Bessarabia,  58-9 ;  in  Rumania, 
59. 

Railroads,  condition  of,  in  Serbia,  9-10. 

Reconstruction  societies,  of  Venetia, 
88-9. 

Religion:  of  Serbia,  3;  of  Slavonia  and 
Croatia,  4;  of  Carinthia  and  Carniola, 
4;  of  Dalmatia,  4;  of  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina,  5. 

Ricica,  dairy  society  at,  27. 

Rochdale  plan,  26;  used  by  Zagreb  co- 
operative society,  41. 

Rome:  89;  Socialist  productive  section 
headquarters  in,  73, 

Rumania:  character  of  cooperative 
movement  in,  2;  work  of  cooperative 
societies  in,  45  et  seq. 

Rye,  raised  in  Serbia,  9, 

St.  Ivan  Zabno,  cattle-breeding  society 
at,  28. 

Sarajevo,  36-7 ;  Croat  cooperative  union 
at,  39,  43. 

Schools,  organized  by  Central  of  Ru- 
mania, 58. 

Schoolmasters  society,  work  of,  in 
Ljubljana,  32. 

Schulze-Delitzsch :  bank,  17;  coopera- 
tive societies  in  Slovenia,  29 ;  in  Ru- 
mania, 66. 

Selo-Banja,  Austrian  invasion  of,  14-15 ; 
wine  society  at,  14  et  seq. 

Serbia:  area,  population  and  industries 
of,  3-4;  development  of  cooperative 
societies  of,  7;  reorganization  of  co- 
operative movement  in,  8  ;  crops  of,  9 ; 
work  of  cooperative  societies  of,  10 
et  seq. 

Shipbuilding  society:  number  of,  in  Dal- 
matia, 33 ;  of  Genoa,  84. 

Silk,  produced  in  Serbia,  9. 

Slavonia:  area,  population  and  indus- 
tries of,  4. 

Slovenia:  types  of  cooperative  societies 
in,  6 ;  work  and  development  of  co- 
operative societies  of,  29  et  seq. 

Smederevo,  work  of  wine  society  in,  16. 

Social  service:  by  Markovec  Agricultural 


Society,  18;  by  People's  Bank  at  01- 
tenitza,  53. 

Socialist  societies,  in  Rumania,  69;  in 
Italy,  73  et  seq. 

Split  (Spalato),  capital  of  Dalmatia,  4; 
cooperative  union  at,  33. 

Stonecutters  societies,  in  Dalmatia,  33. 

Store  societies,  in  Bukovec,  24  et  seq. 

Styria,  4. 

Supply  societies:  formation  of,  in  Ser- 
bia, 8;  in  Koracica,  11. 

Susegana,  work  of  reconstruction  society 
ar,  89-90. 

Switzerland,  cooperative  movement  in,  1. 

Temesvar,  3,  64. 

Threshing  society,  work  of,  in  Koracica, 

11-2. 
Tisza,  Count,  22. 
Transport,  condition  of,  in  Serbia,  8  et 

seq. 
Transylvania,  58-9. 

Treaties:  of  Berlin,  3;  of  Rapallo,  4,  33. 
Treviso,  headquarters  of  reconstruction 

societies  in,  88. 
Triest,  26. 

Unione  Cooperativa,  of  Milan,  71,  75. 

Unione  Miiitari,  of  Rome,  71. 

Union   of    Croatian   Rural    Cooperative 

Societies,  in  Zagreb,  20-1. 
Union  of  Serbian  Cooperative  Societies 

of  Belgrade :  object  of,  9 ;  loans  by,  14 ; 

credit  given  by,  15 ;  credit  extended  to 

Markovec  Agricultural  Society  by,  18. 
Union  of  Serbian  Rural  Banks,  21-2. 
Union  of  Unions,  formation  of,  43-4. 
Unirea,  wholesale  society  in  Bucharest, 

66-7. 
Urban  societies,  65  et  seq. 

Venetia,  work  of  Catholic  productive 
societies  in,  88  ^/  seq. 

Walking  stick  and  umbrella  handle  so- 
ciety, work  of,  81-2. 

Wheat:  raised  in  Serbia,  9;  in  Buko- 
vec, 24;  in  Rumania,  47. 

Wholesale  societies,  in  Bucharest,  66  et 
seq. 

W'.ne  societies:  in  Serbia,  7;  in  Selo- 
Banja,  14-5;  in  Smederevo,  16;  in  Slo- 
venia, 29  et  seq.;  in  Dalmatia,  33  et 
seq. 

Zadruga  Zveza,  cooperative  union  of 
Ljubljana,  29-30. 

Zagreb  (Agram)  :  24;  capital  of  Sla- 
vonia and  Croatia,  4—5 ;  congress  of 
cooperative  societies  at,  20,  43 ;  work 
of  cooperative  societies  of,  20-1,  41-2; 
Agrarian  Bank  at,  20-1. 

Zara,  Italian  control  of,  4. 

Zveza  Slovenskih  Zadruga,  cooperative- 
union  of  Ljubljana,  30. 


"^    000 


716  AA6 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

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Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
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